Medical Scholarship Program

The IDF Medical Corps is responsible for providing healthcare services, treatment, and medical instruction to all levels of personnel in the IDF. In addition to its day-to-day missions, the IDF Medical Corps has often been called upon to assist in humanitarian operations abroad. For example, the IDF Medical Corps sent Search & Rescue and Medical Units to help in the aftermath of the 1998 terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, the aftermath of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, and the 2004 Southeast Asia Tsunami.

The IDF Medical Corps was one of the first responders to the January 15, 2010, Earthquake in Haiti. Within 15 hours of the tragedy, the IDF Medical Corps sent over 250 medical personnel who established a state-of-the-art field hospital in Port Au Prince. The hospital included operating rooms, intensive care units, maternity and pediatric wards, and a pharmacy. The IDF treated more than 1,100 patients, performed 319 surgeries, and delivered 16 babies.

There is currently a shortage of military physicians for combat and non-combat units. The IDF Medical School, which is planned to be a new school of the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Health Sciences in Jerusalem, will help meet this demand by training 50 medical students per year for 6 years (total of 300 students). These students will become experts in: combat and non-combat medicine, disaster and humanitarian relief, post-traumatic stress, preventive health-care, and treating victims of Weapons of Mass Destruction.