In order to strengthen ties between Israel and Azerbaijan, a delegation from BGU traveled to Azerbaijan recently to train 31 Azeri doctors and researchers in Good Clinical Practice (GCP). Naomi Amihai, Director of the Research Management Unit and Aviva Grosbard, Co-ordinator for Clinical Trials at Soroka conducted the training.
FOHS Dean Prof. Amos Katz and Prof. Nadav Davidovitch, the Dean’s Advisor for International Affairs, also traveled to Azerbaijan to meet with the president of Azerbaijan Medical University where they signed an agreement to collaborate on research and teaching and professional knowledge sharing.
“The course was a cornerstone for cooperation. For me, to return to Baku where I was born as a doctor and to hold this course there for the first time was to come full circle,” says Dr. Geftler.
During the course, Amihai and Grosbard taught international principles in clinical research with a focus on ethical dilemmas.
At the conclusion of the training, the participants received a certificate issued to them by Israeli ambassador to Azerbaijan H.E. Dan Stav. “The Azeri medical system is in desperate need of knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing in various fields, from training skilled personnel to the need to significantly upgrade the medical system to acquiring skills to conduct research studies to a high international standard,” he noted.
The successful initial course has led to the first joint research study which will focus on the effect of Azerbaijan’s Nahçivan salt mines on lung diseases.
Above left to right: Prof. Shorkai Sedayev, head of clinical surgery at Azerbaijan Medical University, H.E. Dan Stav, Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Prof. Rauf Bailrov and Prof. Rahima Gvuloba from Azerbaijan Medical University and Dr. Alexander Geftler of BGU's Faculty of Health Sciences
