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Healing The World

Israel attracts medical tourists with its advanced treatments and lower costs.

Don Cohen I Contributing Writer

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

about much more than Dead Sea spa
resorts and the Tiberias hot springs, or
"healing therapy tourism," which has
been going on for decades.
Israel's advanced medical and bio-
technological research and know-how
are magnets for those seeking medical
procedures and treatments that are less
expensive, higher quality or unavailable
where they live.
Amitai Rotem, marketing director for
the Hadassah Medical Organization, is
one of Israel's mavens on medical tour-
ism. Working from a simple, but profes-
sional and technologically impressive
office at Hadassah Medical Center in
Jerusalem, he credits technology for the
international growth of the industry.
"Not surprisingly, it's the Internet that
has opened up opportunities," Rotem
said. "Now it's not difficult to search spe-
cialties, treatments reputations and price.
Medicine has become very specialized
and you can locate experts around the
world. Everyone can read about a center
that is superior in what they are looking
for:'
Rotem says the two main draws for
Americans are the range of specialty
treatments and infertility treatments that
adhere to Halachah (Jewish religious law).
Israeli specialties include laser technol-
ogy, cutting-edge stem-cell research and
extensive clinical research and studies
focused on neurological disorders like
multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer's and
Parkinson's diseases, which have earned
the country an international reputation.
These specialties draw patients from
around the world, including Dr. Jason
Bodzin of West Bloomfield, who went for
stem-cell treatment after being diagnosed
last September with amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou
Gehrig's disease.
"When we found out about the oppor-
tunity in Israel, we jumped on it," Bodzin
said. "There really aren't a lot of different
places to go:'
Bodzin, a past president of the Detroit
Surgical Association, knows there is no
cure for ALS. He has the highest regard
for the care he has received from his
American physicians and the University
of Michigan's world-class and pioneering
ALS Clinic, which he visits every three

8 June 20 • 2013

Amitai Rotem in Hadassah Hospital's Interventional Neuro-Radiology Center

A sign at Haddassah Hospital points medical
tourists to its International Medical Evaluation
and Referral department.

Israel's biotechnological and advanced
medical research and know-how are
magnets for those seeking medical procedures
and treatments that are less expensive, higher
quality or unavilable where they live.

Pearlena and Jason Bodzin

months, but the stem-cell treatment
available in Israel was not available here.
"I was a young 67 until this disease
Bodzin said. He worked out three to four
days a week, swam and, just a few years
ago, hiked the Grand Canyon. Today he
relies on a walker because of his lack of
balance. While his workout has changed,
he still exercises three times a week to try
to retain muscle mass.
He had to retire last Nov. 30 because he
couldn't do surgery anymore.
"Talk about your world being turned
upside down in a heartbeat:' said his
wife, Pearlena, an active volunteer in
Detroit's Jewish community.
But hope comes from Israel. Unlike
the U.S., where politics hinders stem-cell
research, in Israel it has broad political
support, in part, because Jewish religious
authorities encourage it for its life-saving
potential.
"In Israel, the laws are very progres-
sive," Rotem explained.

Bodzin's daughter, Beth, who lives with
her family in Maale Adumim, outside of
Jerusalem, naturally spoke with her best
friend about her dad's condition. Then
her friend called a friend of hers, the
daughter of Professor Reuven Or, head of
Hadassah's Medical Center's Department
of Bone Marrow Transplantation, Cell
Therapy and Transplantation Research
Center.
As it turned out, Dr. Or knew of a
current stem-cell trial and, while only
Israelis were eligible, he knew he could
provide the same treatment to Bodzin.
"They said I was a good candidate
because I'm early in the course of the dis-
ease Bodzin said. Another hopeful sign
is that ALS usually progresses slower in
older adults.
So, in February, the Bodzins flew to
Israel. At Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical
Center some of his bone marrow was col-
lected in what Jason termed "a slick and
quick procedure" that took just minutes.

The idea was to harvest stem cells from
his bone marrow. After the painless pro-
cedure, the Bodzins went shopping. They
spent some time with Beth and her fam-
ily, then returned to the United States to
wait.
Six weeks later, they were back in Israel
so Jason could undergo a stem-cell infu-
sion, where the cells that were multiplied
in a "clean room" were injected back into
several parts of his body. The hope is that
reparative cells would proliferate and sig-
nificantly slow, and even reverse, some of
the deterioration Jason has experienced.
Shura Gruper, Hadassah's medical tour-
ism coordinator, says they found in treat-
ing MS "that when the body gets a pulse
of new cells, it helps healing" and the
growth of the disease slows. "We decided
to try it for ALS, but we have no results
yet, but we hope to show them within the
next two years."

Healing The World on page 10

