The Israel Trauma Society was established in 1993. It succeeded the group of dedicated doctors that in 1987, founded a semi-organized professional society named "ROLLETTA" - which in Hebrew abbreviation, means "Doctors For Trauma (Care)". The active figures behind this move were Dr. Moshe Michaelson from Rambam Med Center, in Haifa and Dr Michael Weiner (then a Colonel in the IDF medical corps). This group of physicians came from various subspecialties such as General Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Anesthesia, Orthopedics, Neurosurgery, Epidemiology, Internal Medicine and High Ranking Military Medical Officers. They used to meet at the office of the Surgeon General at Tel-Hashomer, Headquarters of the Medical Corps. The goal was to improve care for the injured patient, be it in the military or civilian scenario. Most of those involved in care for the injured, also held important position in the medical corps, so it was just natural to have a joint group meet at the Surgeon General's office. This group of influential physicians, were instrumental in the introduction of the ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) course of the American College of Surgery, to Israel. The course, which was brought to the country by Prof. Avi Rivkind of Haddassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, started in December 1989. Apart from several courses conducted in civilian sites it has since then been running at the Military Medical Academy (Bahad 10) continuously up until today. Initially hesitant to approve the course the Israel Surgical Organization finally approved of the course and arranged it to be a compulsory course and as part of the requirements for receiving the Specialty Boards in all Surgical Specialties and Sub-Specialties.
The first National Trauma Conference was held in 1988. Since then it was held yearly. Since 1993 (except for 2002) the conferences are organized by the Israel Trauma Society.
Although under the auspices of the Israel Surgical Organization, that is part of the Israel Medical Association (IMA), non-physicians can still be Associated Members of the society. They can vote and be voted for some society committee positions. Only Full Members (which have to be physicians, members of the Israel Medical association), can be elected for the positions of chairman, secretary and treasurer. Thus, the society includes (in addition to physicians) paramedics, nurses and other healthcare professionals that have an interest in trauma care in all its aspects.
The society and its members are dedicated to the advancement of trauma care in Israel. The official goals, as written in the bylaws of the society when it was founded, are as follows:
To be an organizational and professional framework for physicians and other healthcare professionals involved in trauma care.
To develop and improve the care provided to trauma patients at the clinical research educational and organizational levels.
To develop contacts with individual trauma care professionals, as well as other trauma related societies in Israel and abroad.
To organize periodic scientific trauma conferences.
Over the years the society conducted (apart from the annual National Trauma Conference) quarterly national trauma forums, as well as several nationwide Quality assurance/Quality improvement activities in the form of Multi-institutional M&M meetings and participating in National surveys of trauma centers. Recently it is involved with the efforts of the Ministry of Health (through the Israeli Trauma Council) in the activities to create an accreditation process for Israeli Trauma Centers.
With the initiative of the late Ms Vita Bar-el, of the Gertner Institute in Tel-Hashomer and the Trauma Branch of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), the Israeli Trauma Society helped found the National Israeli Trauma Registry in 1995. Previously, it was an anecdotal effort by only two medical centers (Rambam in Haifa and Hadassah in Jerusalem). The National registry, run today by Dr. Kobi Peleg, captures all data related to hospitalized trauma patients at all 6 Level 1 trauma centers and an additional 20 other trauma centers 90% of the injuerd in Israel are now in the Trauma Registry. There are nearly 25,000 new entries per year covering an estimated 75-80% of all trauma casualties in the country.
The society census fluctuates between 40-120 members. ~70% of which are physicians.
The number of participants in the annual Trauma Society Conference = 270-500 participants: Physicians, Nurses, Paramedics and other healthcare professionals.
Senior Members of the Committee of the Israeli Trauma Society:
1993-1997 Chairman - Dr. Michael Weiner
Secretary - Dr. Moshe Michaelson
Treasurer - Dr. Ricardo Alfici
1997-1998 Chirman - Dr. Moshe Michaelson
Secretary - ?
Treasurer - Dr. Ricardo Alfici
1998-2001 Chairman - Dr. Ricardo Alfici
Secretary - Dr. Yoram Kluger (?)
Treasurer - Dr. Michael Stein
2001-2004 Chairman - Dr. Moshe Michaelson
Secretary - Dr. Daniel Simon
Treasurer - Dr. Michael Stein
2004-2010 Chairman - Dr. Michael Stein
Secretary - Dr. Daniel Simon
Treasurer - Dr. Eran Tal-Or
Member - Dr. Yoram Klein
Member - Dr. Boris Kessel
Member - Dr. Amir Blumenfeld (LTC, IDF Med Corp)
Member - Ms. Gila Hyams
Member - Ms. Dina Alboer
Review Committee
Head - Dr. Dror Soffer
Current Committee
Chairman - Dr. Yoram Klein
Secretary - Dr. Dror Soffer
Treasurer - Dr. Eran Tal-Or
Member - Dr. Kobi Peleg
Member - Dr. Guy Lin
Member - Ms. Gila Hyams
Member - Ms. Dina Alboer