Prof. Michael Glikson, MD
Director of Jesselson Integrated Heart Center, Shaare Zedek Medical Center
Past President, Israel Heart Society
Chairman, Mayo Clinic Fellowship Committee
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Prof Glikson was trained in electrophysiology and pacing at Mayo Clinic between the years 1992 to 1994. Prof Glikson defines these years as the most critical years in building his career. The field was relatively new with few people in Israel trained abroad, and many new procedures that were not practiced at that time in Israel. Training at Mayo enabled him to join the new electrophysiology team at Sheba Medical Center that gradually evolved later to the electrophysiology unit and finally the Davidai Arrhythmia center, the leading and largest center of its kind in the country.
“Mayo experience gave me a lot of academic achievements and made me a teacher, but above all Mayo is about excellent non compromising patient care. I saw all kinds of patients from all over the world coming to Mayo with the toughest EP problems. I learnt all about best quality medicine and best patient care. When coming back to Israel there were very few problems that I could not manage on my own”.
Later in his career Prof Glikson became professor of cardiology, the leader of the Israeli working group for pacing and electrophysiology, and later the president of the Israel Heart Society and a member of the European Society of Cardiology Board. Over the last three years he is chairing the heart center at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. “None of these achievements could have been possible without the Mayo impact on my career”.
After his return Prof Glikson maintained on going fruitful collaboration with the Mayo Clinic staff. He participated in many collaborative studies, shared many difficult cases, and established the IHS-Mayo fellowship as well as the Mayo Sheba collaboration agreement. As a recognition of his contribution to the international collaboration of Mayo, he was nominated in 2018 an adjunct professor of Medicine at the Mayo college of Medicine and Science.
“Having gone through this fantastic training I felt that I must enable other Israelis to train there, and several years after my return I established the IHS-Mayo fellowship together with Dr Amir Lerman. This is the most prestigious fellowship of the IHS which built the career of many current leaders in Israeli cardiology.”