IHS – Mayo Fellowship Introduction

US is the leading country in the world in all aspects of medicine including cardiology. Many leading Israeli cardiologists owe their career to the training in clinical programs of cardiology subspecialties in the USA. Even now in 2021 we do not have subspecialty training programs in Israel that provide the same level of training and competence as the leading programs in the USA. Over the years it has become more and more difficult for foreign graduates to be admitted to American clinical training programs and there are currently few places that provide such training to Israelis.

Under these circumstances we are especially lucky to have one training position reserved annually for Israeli fellows at the world famous Mayo Clinic, always ranked as first or second cardiology program in the US. The Mayo Clinic agreed to maintain this position as long as it is covered by funds raised by the IHS.

The IHS Mayo fellowship is a 75K$ grant awarded annually by the Israel Heart Society to an Israeli fellow for training at Mayo in one of the fields of cardiology. This fellowship, established in 2005 has already provided training to 16 fellows and the 17th fellow is scheduled to start in July 2021. Fellows are selected by a local committee comprised of Mayo alumni, leaders of the Israeli Heart Society and a representative of Mayo and their selection is approved by the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic is committed to reserve one position for the IHS fellow every year in most cardiology fields. All candidates have to make a full commitment to return to Israel following their fellowship. Thus far all these fellows have returned.

All our fellows so far received excellent evaluations at the Mayo Clinic and the IHS fellowship has become a very popular source of excellent fellows for the heads of the different services in cardiology at Mayo. Most of them were asked to stay for one or two additional years that were funded by Mayo. Returning Mayo fellows acquired excellent skills, published scientific papers and have exhibited a strong desire to pursue their professional and academic careers here in Israel and to maintain collaboration with the Mayo Clinic. The success of the program has been acknowledged both by us and the Mayo cardiology staff and is a source of pride for all of us. Many graduates of the program are now in leading position in Israeli cardiology.

The program has been supported by several individual donors, later by a philanthropic Association, "Reut", and later since 2015 up to now by the Crowne family foundation. These last two connections were created by Rabbi Elimelech Firer, Israel Prize Laureate, who recognized the importance of the program to advancing Israeli cardiology. This foundation has recently changed its priorities and is now concentrating on non-medical areas, and this year is its last year of support of the Mayo fellowship. Therefore, the Mayo – IHS fellowship is currently looking for a new source of support, and we are glad that you were willing to consider our request for support of the fellowship in the future. If you decide to support us, we will of course ask you to be part of the interview process of candidates for future fellowships and if you decide to contribute the whole grant (75K annually) we will be happy to name it after you or after anyone whom you choose to name it after.

Gratefully yours,