About Sheba Introduction

Born in 1948 along with the fledgling State of Israel to treat the wounded of Israel's War of Independence, the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer has grown into Israel's national medical center -- the largest and most comprehensive medical center in the Middle East.

At every important juncture in Israel's turbulent history, the Sheba Medical Center has played a pivotal role. As the main hospital for the Israel Defense Forces, it provides Israel's soldiers with the best acute and rehabilitative care; it leads the rehabilitation of terror victims; it is the most advanced center for treatment of genetic, congenital and malignant diseases; and it has revolutionized medical care in Israel: pioneering Israel's first open-heart, artificial heart, and congenital heart defect surgeries, and more. Sheba is also a major medical-scientific research powerhouse that collaborates internationally with the bio-tech and pharmaceutical industries to develop new drugs, treatments and technologies, and a foremost global center for medical education. More than 25 percent of all clinical research in Israel is conducted at Sheba, and the medical center is the main clinical trial venue for human health scientific studies conducted by the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Tel Aviv and Bar-Ilan universities.

Sheba is situated on a 150-acre campus at Tel Hashomer on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, comprising 120 departments and clinics and 1,700 beds, employing more than 1,300 physicians, 2,400 nurses and 3,300 other healthcare workers, scientists and support staff. It treats over 1.4 million patients a year.

The medical center uniquely combines a major Acute Care Hospital with a Rehabilitation Hospital, Women's Hospital, Children's Hospital, Laboratory Division, Outpatient Division, and an Academic Campus. It is the university teaching center for Tel Aviv University's medical and nursing schools.

Sheba is a national and international medical leader, and has taken upon itself many projects on a regional level. It is home to the Israel National Center for Health Policy and Epidemiology Research (equivalent to the U.S. National Institutes of Health), the internationally-acclaimed Israel National Center for Medical Simulation (MSR), the Israel National Blood Bank and Cord Blood Bank, The Edmond J. Safra International Congenital Heart Center, and the Ziering Israel National Center for Newborn Screening.

The Sheba Rehabilitation Hospital is one of the largest and most comprehensive rehabilitation hospitals in the world, with respiratory, neurological, orthopedic, psychiatric, geriatric, multiple sclerosis and head trauma rehabilitation departments. It also serves as the national center for the rehabilitation of terror victims and IDF wounded.

Sheba provides services to patients from across the Middle East, including many patients (especially children) from the Palestinian Authority.

It also provides guidance and mentoring in the planning, construction and operation of healthcare systems and hospitals around the world, including Equatorial Guinea, Russia, Ivory Coast, Argentina and Brazil. This includes, for example, a multi disciplinary clinic in Ukraine, an imaging Center in Uzbekistan, a medical center in the Republic of Equatorial Guinea (as a "turn-key" project, including on-going support), an oncology center in Mauritania, a polyclinic in the Ivory Coast, and more.

Sheba is committed to international relief efforts, and has sent medical support to Kosovo, Armenia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Rwanda, to name only a few of many countries.