The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically reduced admissions of children with and without chronic conditions to general paediatric wards.

Aim: We examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on how many children were admitted to Israel's largest tertiary paediatric hospital and why they were admitted.

Methods: Israel declared COVID-19 a national emergency on 19 March 2020. This study examined daily hospital admissions to our three general paediatric wards during the COVID-19 lockdown period from 20 March to 18 April 2020.

Changing epidemiology and resistance patterns of pathogens causing neonatal bacteremia.

To conduct a survey of the local prevalent bacteria and antibiotic resistance in a referral tertiary neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), in order to assess the efficacy of local antibiotic policies. We reviewed all positive blood and cerebrospinal fluid cultures obtained between January 2007 and December 2017 in the NICU of Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel. Early and late-onset bacteremia were defined as episodes occurring within or after the first 3 calendar days of life respectively.

Pediatric and Adolescent Surgical Breast Clinic: Preliminary Experience.

Study Objective: The diagnostic and treatment tools used in breast centers are largely geared to adults, and there is little consideration of the unique characteristics of breast diseases in younger age groups. Herein we report on the preliminary experience of a specialized breast clinic for children and adolescents.

Design: Retrospective, observational.

Cardiac anomalies and associated comorbidities in a large adolescent population.

Objective: To determine the prevalence, secular trends and associations of heart disease in a large unscreened, otherwise basically healthy, adolescent population.

Subjects And Methods: Cross-sectional study of the cardiac status of 113,694 adolescents from the northern district of Israel, who completed the profiling process between the ages of 16 and 19, including all essential measures over a 22-year period. Results of imaging were categorized as either isolated valvar or structural abnormalities, and their clinically significant subgroups defined prospectively.

Adolescent BMI at Northern Israel: From Trends, to Associated Variables and Comorbidities, and to Medical Signatures.

The increasing prevalence of abnormal body mass index (BMI), mainly obesity, is becoming a significant public health problem. This cross-sectional study aimed to provide a comprehensive view of secular trends of BMI, and the associated socio-demographic variables and comorbidities among adolescents with abnormal BMI. Individuals of the study population were born mainly between 1970 and 1993, and were examined at 16 to 19 years of age during the years 1987 to 2010, at 1 conscription center in the northern district of Israel.

Coordinated computerized systems aimed at management, control, and quality assurance of medical processes and informatics.

Purpose: As part of the routine work of the medical committees in the Israel Defense Forces, a unique nationwide computerized control system is being implemented to assess and manage medical processes. The purpose of this paper is to report on that implementation.

Design/methodology/approach: The computerized system consists of three main components: a specific status indicating the processes in each file, an appointment system, and an internal computerized system that uses a magnetic card for the regulation of the local waiting lists.

Quality-assuring intervention for technical medical staff at medical committees.

Purpose: This paper seeks to examine an intervention program which was developed in order to improve the performance and skills of technical medical personnel at the military recruitment medical committees.

Design/methodology/approach: Evaluation of the technician soldiers' performance was carried out by the usage of a specifically farmed survey, comprising a designed questionnaire, and direct observation of their work, including appraisal of their measurements and interpretation skills.

Findings: Prior to intervention, analysis revealed: insufficient knowledge of normal range of blood pressure and pulse values, visual acuity of color vision, urinalysis and their relation to the classification process at medical committees; and inadequate technicalities such as incorrect weight and height measurements.

Quality control and quality assurance of medical committee performance in the Israel Defense Forces.

Purpose: The paper aims to focus on a unique quality control system that was set up ten years ago to evaluate Medical Classification Committee decision-making processes at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conscription center.

Design/methodology/approach: Two main approaches were deployed by the control system to assess medical classification committees' performance. The first was direct assessment of the medical committees' clinical work and decision-making processes.

Unmasking of carnitine palmitoyltransferase deficiency during an acute exacerbation of asthma complicated by rhabdomyolysis in a soldier.

Rhabdomyolysis is a life-threatening condition that may result from various etiologies. We report a rare case of severe rhabdomyosis in a soldier after a mild acute asthma exacerbation. Further work-up revealed an underlying deficiency of type II carnitine palmitoyltransferase.