09/10/2021
The good doctor,
After years of devoting herself to the purpose of her life
as a pediatrician, Dr. Miriam Herman was looking for
The Next Big Challenge.
Today, at age 60,
she joined a Medical Intelligence company
and set up a “special unit” designed to save the lives of
Children with rare and complex diseases.
Unfortunately, there are not quite a few sick children, and this is just one of many kinds of stories that Dr. Herman, who recently turned 60, accompanied during her career as a pediatrician. Her Hebrew is fluent, but her accent betrays her origins.
From a girl doctor, to being a pediatrician.
She was born and raised in Paraguay, her father was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and her mother is a professor of chemistry and philosophy. "My parents always worked hard," she says. "We were considered middle class, but all around us, we saw the gaps in the country. Already at the age of four, I felt distressed when I discovered that there was inequality. I would take the pocket money my parents gave me and give it to needy friends or poor people. I felt
"They need it more than I do. It was my contribution to have a little more balance around me."
Age four was also the age at which she decided that when she grew up she would be a pediatrician. "Yes, it turns out it was signed!
In my fate, "she says." I called myself Dr. Miriam. In any case of a boy or girl who was injured in kindergarten, every child who fell - I was the first in the arena, caregiver, es**rt, interested. Even then I knew it was my destiny in life. "
At the age of 28, (after graduating at 23 from the Paraguay School of Medicine ),she immigrated to Israel with a scholarship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the test of the immigrant doctors, she received the highest score, which made all the hospitals woo her. She started working at Soroka, where she completed a pediatrics residency, having previously completed one in Paraguay, that was not recognized in the country of Israel.
She then moved to Tel Aviv and started working at Maccabi Healthcare Services . For years she worked as a Maccabi doctor as a pediatrician but found it difficult to make do with a regular job. "I was constantly looking for a way to do more for the patients. That's how I decided to initiate a role that actually did not exist in Maccabi until then - a district pediatrician," she says. "Over time, I also set up a control unit of Maccabi in Ichilov Medical center. The idea behind the establishment of this unit was to help the hospitalized children, alleviate the bureaucracy, be closer to the patient and give him an answer within the hospital itself. " But even that was not enough for her, and at a certain point, she decided to become independent an work as an Independent Pediatrician at her own office, for Maccabi. From working as an employee at a clinic that receives 2,500 visits a year, she has moved to a wider scope as a freelancer, with 40,000 visits a year. "I have families whose parents and children were cared for by me and now their children are my patients . This is my breathable air. This is what motivates me. I do not limit the number of my patients. I help everyone who needs me."
Still, many doctors complain about impaired patient care due to overload. How do you deal with this issue?
"I do not see it that way. I do not limit the number, and everyone gets service. It does not come at their expense but at the expense of my time, and personally, I accept it with joy and love. It is my attitude. It is my choice to stay overtime and give more. "I believe that the success of my clinic is due to the service. It is a fact that I was looking for more work and that is what happened."
This search for meaningful doing is also what led her to the next challenge in her life. "I have a patient I meet occasionally, and her children and even grandchildren were my patients. A few months ago I met her by chance and told her I was in a certain state of restlessness. That I felt I was not doing enough. I have a lot of knowledge and managerial experience and I know the community and volunteer a lot.
Half a year ago she brought me to meet Tanya Attias, 32 , she is the founder and CEO of Medint . Tanya is a graduate of a classified unit in the IDF's Intelligence Division and holds a decade of experience in security intelligence.
Six years ago she founded the company following a case of a personal friend of hers, who contracted cancer and the doctors exhausted the treatment options for his condition and sent him home. Together with dozens of other researchers and graduates of intelligence units, she founded a “War Room” who worked around the clock and found innovative studies and treatments that gave him several more years of life and even allowed him to fulfill his dream - to have a child. With the help of their knowledge in the field of informatics, they help patients to seek and find solutions that they did not know or did not come up with as part of their treatment, and many times have already managed to save lives.
"I met Tanya, 3 years ago and I was impressed, and that was a great meeting, but nothing happened then, says Dr. Herman. "After 3 years, I received a phone call from her with an offer to come for a job interview. That same day I started working there. I told her that if I got involved, I wanted to set up a children's unit. She told me I was welcome to pick up the glove, and so it was. I got into the job a few months ago, and since then I have dedicated myself to the challenge .
What does this actually mean? How does the cooperation between you take place?
"Until I arrived there was no pediatric division. They did help children, but there was no pediatrician specialized in this domain. From the moment I joined Medint, whenever a child with a serious or rare illness arrives, the service coordinator connects the parents to me."
And what happens from the referral phase to you?
"In the first conversation, I ask them and check if we have a way to help - if we need to investigate something about a disease or another treatment and what has recently been renewed in the field of the particular disease of the child. I also check if a medical attendant is needed to closely follow the case. "I return to the parents with a solution after we do everything to run it as quickly as possible. At this point we are already having a conversation with the parents where the researcher and I are present. After the conversation we work on the case and come to conclusions."
Following the lost medicine
Although it has not been long since Dr. Herman joined the company and founded Medint Kids, she can tell of quite a few cases of children who have gone through it. “Unfortunately, there are many cases of children with oncological tumors who turn to us. For example, we came across a case of a child with a brain tumor just before surgery. Contact us to help him find the exact drug according to his genetics so he can start taking it immediately after surgery. It all happened very quickly, and every minute was critical. We had only 48 hours before surgery and had to extract maximum information on the biopsy the child underwent
Our goal was to obtain all the drug information: which drugs are appropriate for the specific type of mutation in the child. We brought all the drugs, they were tested on it and injected directly into the brain to see which one works most effectively. It was a real operation - two researchers and I worked 24/7 in shifts. Happily, the child underwent the surgery successfully. "There was also a case of a baby with a rare genetic disease in the limbs. This was after all the pregnancy tests were normal, both parents were healthy, and the amniocentesis was completely normal. A crying mother came to us after she had already gone through doctors, neurologists, and orthopedists, but found no answer. The mother was without support and information, and we told her we would reach every corner of the world to help. In our investigation, which included sending emails to doctors all over the world, within three days we found a drug. A doctor from France reported that they tried this drug. "We looked for an Israeli medical center that can provide the treatment. This is something that is happening right these days, and we are very optimistic that it will work."
Do you think there is a need for the kind of service they provide?
Is it possible that this information does not reach doctors, who are under a load of patients,
And can not control the load of information and research?
"I think every doctor's medical information is limited. We take the patient's file, and with the help of skilled researchers we look for all possible information - online, on medical sites, on social networks, with doctors all over the world. These are things that never existed because there was no technology. Now that you have them, you have to take them with both hands. This is the future of the medical world, not to mention the present. We understand that our knowledge is limited. No matter how smart and experienced the doctor is, there is so much knowledge in the world, there is so little we know. "Medical intelligence for a doctor is necessary. Our experience shows that with the help of this intelligence it is possible to save and change the reality of life every day."
Do you think there is no failure of the health system here in a sense? Why, for example, cannot hospitals and HMOs themselves employ intelligence experts to locate research groups, surgeons and procedures when it comes to less common cases?
"I do not see this as a failure. It is simply a fact - no hospital in the State of Israel has an information unit that helps doctors find such complex information. It should be understood that we do not turn to Google. We have a method, technology, researchers with very broad knowledge, and all information is original and reliable and the most accurate there is. This is a system built in a very unique way that is not available to everyone." Among the cases that came to Medint were also those in which Dr. Herman recommended waiting and not treating. "There are diseases that as the child grows change their horizon," she explains. "A child's body is a dynamic thing. There are times when there is no need to do anything but just wait and see where it develops. Maybe you just need surgery and not a screening. It is very different from child to child, but in general I can say that if once the automatic treatment for every diabetic child was the administration of insulin, today there are more treatments that can be tested. "Medicine is constantly advancing, and it should be remembered that we are in 2021. There are diseases that we think they have no cure today and suddenly we do find hope. Contacted us for example someone, a father of two children from Austria, with a serious genetic disease that causes children to die at a very young age. "To think that two out of two will not survive - this is the end of the world. But we have turned every stone, and finally we have reached a medicine in the Netherlands that prolongs life.
A mother of a 16-year-old was concerned and broken when doctors explained to her that her son might lose his sight completely following a tumor in his head. In her ordeal, she tried to
find every piece of information that might lead her to someone who will change the pessimistic forecast. That's how she got to
Medint, a company that researches, analyzes, and collects Medical intelligence to provide the information and latest treatment options for patients in Israel and around the world.
This is where the mother first meet Dr. Miriam Herman, a pediatrician with extensive clinical experience who started working for the Metdint Just a few months earlier and opened a special department
for children.
Dr. Herman decided she would not let go of the case until
that a medical solution is found for the child's condition. She worked
on the case for 48 hours consecutive hours, in front of the computer,
In phone calls, without sleep, and with the help of the combination of
the intelligence research capabilities of the company and with Dr. Herman's knowledge and experience, a surgeon was found in Pittsburgh, USA specializing in the specific surgery the child had to undergo.
A surgeon was found however the boy was ranked 30 to wait for this type of surgery. Medint used the vast connection and relationships and the child was first in line and passed the operation successfully. "After
Two months in the United States the child returned to Israel, and in these days is undergoing rehabilitation.
Breakthrough medical intelligence:
Medint is a medical intelligence company that currently offers medical research services for difficult and complex patients and a personal medical es**rt service. The medical research is conducted by a researcher with knowledge in the worlds of intelligence and a physician, who investigate the patient's medical file in depth based on the medical history and tests he has performed so far, and seek
Additional information - Studies, medications and treatment methods that may be relevant to his condition.
Many times the study finds treatment options that the patient and attending physician did not know about
Their existence has led to a breakthrough in the patient's treatment and rehabilitation process. The personal medical attendant is designed to include for the patient all the rights and bureaucratic issues that the patient and his family face in the process of managing the disease. He prepares an action plan for the patient and makes sure that he exhausts all the rights he deserves socially and medically. In addition, over the past year, the company has been hired by Health Institutions in Israel and around the world, including the Israeli Ministry of Health, to compile intelligence reports that have helped decision makers formulate policies and make decisions in the fight against the Corona virus.
