Ichilov creates service to treat pulmonary fibrosis impacted by COVID-19
In the event of a positive diagnosis, patients will be treated with customized drugs to help ease the disease.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFIn Tel Aviv, at the Ichilov Hospital’s COVID-19 isolation ward, medical staffers lit Hanukkah candles.(photo credit: GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)
A first-of-its-kind multidisciplinary service has been established at Sourasky Medical Center's Ichilov Hospital to help treat pulmonary fibrosis, as highlighted in a press release from the hospital on Monday.The new service will help diagnose and treat patients with pulmonary fibrosis of all types, including as a complication of coronavirus. Dr. Avraham (Rami) Unterman, a lung disease specialist who returned to Israel from a two-year course at Yale University, will head the new service at Ichilov. Unterman was responsible for a new study at Yale that looked into the effects of coronavirus on the immune system via a groundbreaking technology called single-cell RNA sequencing.This new technology makes it possible to characterize cells at a higher resolution than what was previously possible. In cases of severe reactions of the coronavirus, which is caused by overactivity of the immune system that leads to pneumonia, Unterman revealed the asynchrony between the portions of the immune system that characterize coronary heart disease patients who have deteriorated and died, compared to those who survived.The new service will be available to members of all Israeli health maintenance organizations (HMOs), where each new patient will undergo a comprehensive diagnostic session by Dr. Unterman and his team, followed by a multidisciplinary team with the participation of pulmonologists along with an imaging specialist, rheumatologist and pathologist, to ensure the most accurate diagnosis.In the event of a positive diagnosis, patients will be treated with customized drugs to help ease the pulmonary fibrosis.
