Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem’s Dr Ahmad Nama Invests in NeedleTrainer to Expand Nerve Block Training in Country and Across the World
Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem (Hadassah) is one of the largest hospitals in Israel and a symbol of healthcare across the middle east. With approximately 1,200 beds, more than 6,000 employees and 2,000 volunteers, it’s the second largest non-government institution in Israel.
Dr Ahmad Nama is Director of the Emergency Medicine Department (EMD) at Hadassah. In 2023, his EMD accepted over 100,000 patients, 80,000 of these adults. With an average growth rate of 2-5% year on year and new transport links soon to be completed, patient numbers are set to soar again over the coming years.
As patient numbers increase, so does the need for trained professionals. The EMD currently has over 70 nurses and 25 doctors. While all senior doctors are already fully trained in emergency medicine, the EMD has 10 residents in training, increasing to 15 by the end of 2024.
Over the last 2 years Dr Nama has been focused on making the EMD more academic. The objective – to train more medical students to meet patient numbers and ultimately improve their care.
Already affiliated with the Hebrew University, students come to the EMD to learn. This includes obligatory teaching for faculty and 2nd, 3rd and 5th year medical students. But a busy hospital requires more than bedside training.
Dr Nama commented “I am a big believer in medical simulation. Although we haven’t yet realized our goal of having a complete simulation center within the hospital, we have a number of existing simulators including manikins and airway equipment.”
More than 50% of patients who visit the EMD are elderly, they go there because they’ve fractured something after a fall. At this point the team need to administer nerve blocks, an area Dr Nama said needed development within the department.
Dr Nama explained “Common practice for teaching is see one, do one, teach one. This isn’t really true. You have to see more and do more in order to teach. Previously we used blue phantoms for vascular access and upper and lower limb models to train on needling. NeedleTrainer caught my eye as you teach ultrasound-guided needling safely and effectively, using non-invasive needle insertion during real-time scanning on a real subject. It resembles and is closer to reality.”
Indeed, for regional anesthesia, NeedleTrainer Plus’ AI live highlighting of key anatomical structures helps with the identification of 10 key peripheral nerve blocks, including all Plan A blocks, helping students train safely and effectively while mitigating risk to patients.
Committed to furthering medical education and embracing innovation, Dr Nama’s vision to increase training and expand knowledge, in a bid to have an immediate impact on patient care, goes beyond Hadassah, it goes worldwide!
In June 2024, Hadassah hosted the 2nd regional nerve block workshop with the Israel Association for Emergency Medicine, training 35 emergency medicine doctors from the ‘all state’.
From the 25-26 September, Dr Nama will host an Advanced Emergency Medicine Interventional Skills Course (Aemis) in Prague, where he expects to train delegates from across the World.
“The aim is to train someone in intensive 2 days hands on training, give them enough knowledge and skills to go home the next day and do the procedure themselves – this will have an immediate impact on patient care.”
When asked about NeedleTrainer’s role in the course, Dr Nama said “NeedleTrainer provides a more accurate training tool. Together with the models, it provides a complete picture for students, where we can teach, they can repeat and be better prepared to put their learning into practice.”
It’s still early days for NeedleTrainer Plus at Hadassah and as part of the courses. Dr Nama’s goal is however clear – to roll out ultrasound guided needle training using NeedleTrainer Plus to the hospital’s doctors, new registrars and students as soon as possible, as an integral part of their nerve block and needling training in the EMD.
In relation to the courses – NeedleTrainer will support Dr Nama in teaching emergency medicine caregivers across the world in emergency medicine interventional skills.
For more information on NeedleTrainer, click here.
To register for Dr Nama’s course in Prague, click here.