The Naomi Fisher Batrnoff Genetic Counseling Unit
The Naomi Fisher Bartnoff Genetics counseling unit is located at the Genetics Institute at Soroka Medical Center, affiliated to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
The Unit is the only genetics counseling service available for the nearly one million people of southern Israel. Genetic counseling services include counseling for cases of familial hereditary diseases, prenatal diagnosis and counseling, cases of aberrant findings on ultrasound in pregnancy, carrier testing for genetic diseases and counseling in cases of hereditary cancer (oncogenetics).
With thousands of genetics counseling sessions annually, administering tens of thousands of genetic tests per year, the counseling unit is one of the most active in Israel.
The Naomi Bartnoff Fisher Genetic Counseling Unit was dedicated at Soroka University Medical Center on December 2013.
The extended Fisher Bartnoff family was on hand to dedicate the new counseling unit. Ground-breaking researcher from the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev and Director of the Unit Prof. Ohad Birk welcomed the family and outlined the importance of the facility at the event.
University President Rivka Carmi noted that this is a topic dear to her heart as one of the founders of the original genetics unit and researcher in the field of genetics. “Being so close to the matter I can appreciate Naomi's huge contribution to the field of genetic counseling, which is critical to delivering genetic understanding and knowledge so that people can make the best decisions on very serious and sometime life changing issues,” she said.
Pictured left to right: Dr. Miki Sherf Director of Soroka University Medical Center, BGU President Prof. Rivka Carmi, David Fisher and Lucy Fisher (children of Naomi Fisher), Director of the Genetic Counseling Unit Prof. Ohad Birk.
Soroka Medical Center
Soroka Medical Center is one of the largest hospitals in Israel, and also the country’s most active. Soroka is the only major medical center in the entire Negev, serving a population of 900,000 people, including 400,000 children, in a region that accounts for 60% of Israel's total land area. Soroka Medical Center serves as the teaching hospital of the Ben-Gurion University Medical School, whose Faculty of Health Sciences is located on the hospital campus. Soroka Medical Center stands at the forefront of medical progress, and is currently undergoing a period of intensive development, upgrading and enhancing research capabilities and the healthcare and medical services it provides.
The Soroka Medical Center / Ben-Gurion University Genetics Institute's research lab is known worldwide for having deciphered the molecular basis of more than 20 human diseases common in both Arabs and Jews.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev aspires to be among the best inter-disciplinary research universities in the world, a leader in scientific innovation, inter-disciplinary research and applied sciences – all of which impact daily life. It is committed to social and environmental responsibility and is working to develop the Negev, Israel and the world.
The University attracts excellent students and researchers from Israel and abroad, original thinkers with a developed social conscience, who integrate into the country's leadership in a variety of ways.
