Prof. Itamar Grotto is a Public Health Physician and Professor of Epidemiology. He was the Director of Public Health Services and the Associate Director General of the Israel Ministry of Health. Between 2018 and 2021 he was a Member of the Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO).
In his capacities in the Israel Ministry of Health (MoH), he led major conceptual and operational changes including:
• Overall responsibility for the successful Israel Vaccination Plan: Establishment of the Israel National Immunization Registry and inclusion of nine new vaccines in the Israeli Public Vaccination Schedule.
• National Health Promotion program aimed to prevent obesity and related diseased.
• Outbreaks preparedness and response, including the response of the Israeli MoH to the silent transmission of wild poliovirus, which resulted in polio re-eradication from Israel with no clinical cases.
• Digital Health and Cyber Security in the Israel Health System, including the establishment of the Ministry of Health big data cloud program platform and GIS system for epidemiological investigations
• Medical Cannabis reform in Israel.
• Establishment of “Health Care Israel” – a platform that enables lifesaving and cost-saving healthcare innovation, technology and expertise to the world – Government to Government (G2G)
• Development of knowledge, expertise, evidence-based research and regulations in the field of Environmental Health.
During the Covid-19 outbreak in Israel, Prof. Grotto took a major role in the development of national strategy and lead the integrative and operative aspects of the emergency response of the Israeli government.
Prof. Grotto is also an active member of the School of Public Health in Ben-Gurion University in Israel. His main research activities are in the fields of infectious diseases epidemiology, environmental health, health promotion and public health policy development. He has authored more than 230 scientific publications.
In his capacity as a member of the Executive Board of WHO he led to the Executive Board resolution on “The Highest Attainable Standard of Health for Persons with Disabilities” in January 2021.
