As part of its mission to continue to expand services for northern residents in Israel, Galilee Medical Center recently opened a new unit for the treatment of heart failure in the Cardiology Department.
This is welcome news area for residents who suffer from this medical condition. Previously, these patients had been hospitalized in an internal medicine ward or received partial treatment in the community clinics, options which were insufficient for their medical condition.
Heart failure, also known as chronic heart failure, is a medical condition where the heart is unable to pump sufficiently to maintain blood flow to meet the body’s needs. Impaired heart function or structure causes symptoms that affect quality of life and life expectancy. Defective heart function can result from impaired muscle contraction (such as after myocardial infarction) or by impairment to the cardiac relaxation mechanism. Patients with heart failure suffer from a wide range of symptoms in daily life including general weakness, shortness of breath, tiredness during exertion, and fluid retention in the extremities.
The treatment of patients with heart failure focuses on alleviating the symptoms to improve quality of life, reduce the frequency of hospitalization and improving life expectancy. The treatment is based on a multi-disciplinary approach that includes close monitoring, the use of medications from different categories and, if necessary, the use of various medical devices.
Dr. Gassan Moady, a senior cardiologist who specializes in heart failure, heads the new unit. Dr. Moady, graduated with honors from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Medical School and received a second degree in medical management studies at the University of Haifa. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Carmel Medical Center in Haifa, and his cardiology residency at Galilee Medical Center. Dr. Moady recently returned from a fellowship at the University of Southern California Medical Center in Los Angeles, considered one of the world’s leading hospitals that specializes in heart failure.
According to Dr. Moady, “The heart failure unit was designed to provide a solution for patients living in the Galilee so that we can monitor them on a continual basis while ensuring medication balance, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of accompanying diseases. The establishment of the unit will also enable the provision of treatments that may improve patients’ quality of life and reduce the need for repeated hospitalization.”
