Jefferson Global Centers

Jefferson Global Centers Expand Our Healthcare Programs Beyond Philadelphia

Thomas Jefferson University has been engaged in expanding working relationships that its faculty and students have around the world. Jefferson’s first international center, the Japan Center for Health Professions Education and Research at Jefferson, was created in 2012 by Jefferson, the Japanese Association for the Development of Community Medicine and the Noguchi Medical Research Institute. Dr. Mark L. Tykocinski, Jefferson’s provost and Dean of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College, has led the University’s effort in expanding additional global health centers in India, Israel, and Italy. These centers provide structure to international partnerships that promote the exchange of research ideas as well as personnel. Jefferson Urology has been actively engaged with the Global Centers in Japan, India and Israel.

JAPAN CENTER

Our department has participated in educational programs coordinated by the Japan Center since its inception nearly a decade ago. In January of this year the Department of Urology in coordination with the Jefferson Japan Center hosted Dr. Fumihiro Ito. Dr. Ito is a urologist from Kariya Toyota General Hospital in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture. He looks forward to visiting Jefferson again in the future.

ISRAEL CENTER

Sheba Medical center in Tel HaShomer, Israel is a participant in the Jefferson Israel Center. Sheba is in near Tel Aviv and is the largest hospital in Israel. In 2020, Newsweek magazine ranked it as the 9th-best hospital in the world. Sheba Medical Center has had a relationship with our Department since Dr. Nir Kleinman, Sheba’s Chief of Endourology, completed a fellowship at Jefferson in 2013. Both Drs. Gomella and Hubosky serve as guest faculty at the biennial “Friends of Israel Urology” (FOIU) international symposium coordinated by the Chair of Urology at Sheba, Dr. Jacob Ramon and Dr. Laurence Klotz from Toronto who also happens to have been our 2020 Brownstein Visiting Professor (see page 21). Dr. Asaf Shvero, from Sheba, has recently joined our Department for a one-year Endourology Fellowship under the direction of Dr. Scott Hubosky (see page 27). colleagues. The Department of Urology, and Drs. Pat Shenot and Akhil Das as CoPI’s have applied for a grant with the Israel Innovation Authority International HealthTech Pilot Program. The grant application is a collaborative effort with P. Square Medical, an Israeli startup company that focuses on developing a complete digital health system for the diagnosis of male urinary disorders. The basis of the grant is the development of a portable device and a disposable sensor coupled with mobile application suitable for remote home care self-diagnosis and in clinic use.

Drs. Gomella and Fumihiro Ito from Kariya Toyota General Hospital in Japan.

I look forward to expanding Urology’s engagement with these programs and joining us in Italy and other future international sites.

Dr. Richard Derman

program at KLES Dr. Prabhakar Kore Hospital & Medical Research Centre, Belagavi (Belgaum), India with Drs. Mat Thakur and Leonard Gomella. The KLE program will expand our work in the VPAC-based urinary cancer detection with a program that is led locally in India by Dr. Rajendra B. Nerli, Director KLES Kidney Foundation, in Belgaum. In January of 2020 just before the international travel restrictions, Dr. Thakur travelled to Belgaum to work with the research team at the newly established Urinary Biomarkers Research Centre. In addition to our urinary detection of prostate cancer projects, Dr. Nerli and associates have begun a related bladder cancer detection project based on

VPAC.

According to Dr. Richard Derman who serves as Jefferson’s Associate Provost for Global Health “I am appreciative of the Department of Urology engaging in our Global Centers projects. Japan, India and Israel have been their main focus. I look forward to expanding Urology’s engagement with these programs and joining us in Italy and other future international sites.”

A fall 2020 Zoom meeting was held between Jefferson and our India center urology research collaborators. Pictured left, top row:

Drs. Nerli, Gomella with Parth Lalakia who coordinates the India Center in Dr. Derman’s office. Second Row: Dr. Shivaprasad Goudar, Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Belgaum who oversees their international research efforts, Dr. Mat Thakur and Dr. Richard Derman, Jefferson’s Associate Provost for Global Health. Bottom row: Dr. Shridhar Ghagane Head Research Scientist at the Urinary Biomarkers Research Centre in Belgaum, India.

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