health & fitness

Dr. Robert Granadier observes

Dr. Shireen Hamed-Azzam.

Eye To Eye

Israeli doctor participates in new resident exchange program.

Robert Ortlieb
Special to the Jewish News

W bile Oakland University
William Beaumont (OUWB)
School of Medicine's inaugural
class won't begin classes until Aug. 8, its
new resident exchange program with the
Emek Medical Center in Israel is already
under way.
At the end of April, Dr. Shireen
Hamed-Azzam arrived from Israel to
begin three months of subspecialty
rotations at Beaumont Hospital, Royal
Oak. These three months are part of her
Ophthalmology Residency Program based
at Emek Medical Center in Afula.
Hamed-Azzam, an Arab Muslim Israeli
citizen, is fluent in three languages: Arabic,
Hebrew and English. Her hospital serves
a culturally diverse region comprised of
Jews, Muslim Arabs, Druze and Christian
Arabs. The northeastern Israeli hospital
serves about 500,000 area residents of
many faiths and is as the "Hospital of
Peace." Its philosophy is "coexistence
through medicine."
"Dr. Hamed-Azzam is a remarkable
person," said Dr. Robert Folberg, founding
dean of the OUWB School of Medicine.
"We have a lot to learn from her and the

Emek medical team, including how to
serve a multicultural population. She's
been an excellent ambassador."
The exchange program is a part of
the memorandum of understanding
announced in February between Emek
and OUWB medical school. It encourages
collaborative research and the sharing
of scientific knowledge between the two
institutions. The memorandum calls for
the exchange of administrators, faculty
members and trainees in medicine at all
levels. This is the first global academic
partnership for the OUWB School of
Medicine.
Emek is affiliated with the Rappaport
Faculty of Medicine at the Technion
University in Haifa, Israel.
Hamed-Azzam, 28, in her second year
of residency, was both excited and anxious
about being the first Israeli resident cho-
sen to participate in the new collaboration.
She had found out about the program
from one of her mentors — Dr. Daniel
Briscoe, chair of ophthalmology, Emek
Medical Center.
"At first, I had some concerns:' she said.
"Would my education and training be suf-
ficient? Would I fit in with the other doc-
tors and residents at Beaumont? And, [I'd
be] separated from my husband."

But shortly after arriving at Beaumont,
she felt very welcome and more at ease.
"The people from Michigan are so
friendly," she said. "The staff at Beaumont
Hospital is very excited that I'm from
Israel. The doctors are so nice
In her first weeks at Beaumont, Hamed-
Azzam learned her training from the
Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Emek
is very good.

Attracted To Medicine
Hamed-Azzam is from Nazareth. She
developed an interest in medicine in her
early teens. After a family car accident, she
spent a lot of time in the hospital watching
the attentive medical staff. That experi-
ence, along with television's ER and House,
convinced her she wanted to help others
as a doctor.
Her parents both work in the travel
industry. Her father owns a hotel in
Nazareth. She has three sisters and a
younger brother. Her three sisters also are
studying to become doctors and are in
medical school. Hamed-Azzam's husband
is a physician, too — an internist and
endocrinologist.
Like Canada, Israel's health care is
socialized medicine. Israeli medical
students must participate in a five-year

residency program. After completing her
residency, Hamed-Azzam plans on partici-
pating in an ophthalmology subspecialty
fellowship program.
While at Beaumont, Royal Oak, she
already has been able to work with and
learn from renowned retinal specialists
Drs. Michael Trese and Antonio Capone.
Beaumont has the world's largest pediatric
retinal program. She also is working with
Dr. George Williams, chief of ophthalmol-
ogy and director of the Beaumont Eye
Institute, and Dr. Robert Granadier, direc-
tor, Ophthalmology Residency Program.
"The first day with Dr. Trese, we saw
patients from Jordan, Brazil and Italy','
Hamed-Azzam said.
She also meets periodically with Folberg,
a pathologist and ophthalmologist.
"I see diseases here that I won't see in
Israel;' Hamed-Azzam said. "I'm very lucky.
This is a very unique and valuable experi-
ence. I'm exposed to a new culture and new
health care system. As the program's first
ambassador, I feel a lot of responsibility.
Despite being so far from my family and
husband, it has been very worthwhile. I'm
having a good time here." I

Robert Ortlieb is in media relations at

Beaumont Health System

July 28 2011

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