Being ProSemitic: Jewish Medical Contributions

1. Polio vaccine: Jonas Salk, who said, “Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors,” developed the first successful polio vaccine in the 1950s,
dramatically reducing the spread of this disease of paralysis.

2. PillCam: Invented by Israeli company Given Imaging (now owned by Medtronic), this ingestible, vitamin-size camera pill allows non-invasive visualization of the gastrointestinal tract to identify polyps and diagnose conditions like Crohn's
disease and colon cancer.

3. ReWalk: A wearable robotic exoskeleton suit designed by Argo Medical Technologies (now Lifeward) that allows individuals with spinal cord injuries and lower limb disabilities to stand, walk, turn and climb stairs.

4. Copaxone: A groundbreaking, widely used disease-modifying medication developed at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science (founded in 1934 in what was then Palestine) to treat multiple sclerosis.

5. MeMed BV: A diagnostic test, approved in the United States by the FDA and easily used by urgent cares and clinics, that within 15 minutes distinguishes between bacterial and viral infections, helping to drastically reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics.

6. Israeli Bandage: Officially known as the First Care Emergency Bandage, this all-in-one trauma dressing is designed for immediate, on-the-spot staunching of hemorrhaging wounds. It’s a bandage, tight wrap and tourniquet in one simple sterile-packaged product invented in the 1990’s by Bernard Bar-Natan, an Israeli military medic.

7. CorNeat KPro: A bio-mimetic artificial cornea designed to replace damaged or opaque corneas, offering a rapid, suturing-free cure for corneal blindness, currently in clinical human trials in the United States.

8. TytoCare: A handheld, AI-powered medical examination device that allows patients to perform comprehensive at-home telehealth checkups directly with their healthcare providers.

9. OrCam’s MyEye 3 Pro talking glasses that tells blind people what they are looking at. An AI-powered device attaches to the frame of glasses and can identify faces or currency or read a text or other information aloud, as well as get information and answer questions interactively.

10. Pacemakers and defibrillators: Cardiologist and Jewish-American Paul Zoll revolutionized emergency medicine in the 1950s by developing external pacemakers and defibrillators, now found just about everywhere, to regulate heartbeats.