General Surgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital Ryder Trauma Center, July 2015

My name is Ilan Schrier. I was born in Israel and studied medicine in Tel-Aviv University from 1996-2003.

Upon graduation of the internship year at Sheba Medical Center, I joined the Israel Defense Force Medical Corps for five years as a combat physician and later as an Infirmary Chief of the paratrooper's brigade training base. In my final year, I served as Deputy Chief of planning section in the medical branch of the medical corps headquarters. I am currently a surgeon in the paratrooper's brigade medical platoon and my current rank is Major (Res.).

In April 2009, I completed my army service and began the general surgery residency. I passed the Israeli board exams and I am about to graduate the residency this April 2015.

The Ryder Trauma Center at University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center is one of the world’s leading facilities and excels in every aspect of trauma care. It is a world-renowned, state-of-the-art center, operated by Jackson Memorial Hospital in conjunction with the University of Miami's Department of Surgery. The Ryder Trauma Center is the only certified Level I trauma center in South Florida, serving both adults and children and it has a worldwide reputation for clinical excellence.

I have been accepted for a 12 month fellowship program, starting July 1st, 2015 under the supervision of the program director, Dr. Louis Pizano. The fellowship program is very demanding, including in hospital on-calls (up to eight per month), long working hours, and taking care of trauma patients from the resuscitation room through surgery or ICU suite until rehabilitation. Nevertheless, it is also undoubtedly rewarding, making the fellow extremely experienced and skilled in all aspects of trauma and emergency operations.

The fellowship will allow me to take care and operate more patients (adults and pediatric) compared to the patient load in Israel. Despite the large number of trauma victims and being one of the most prevalent cause of death (especially in childhood), there are only 9 trauma surgeons in Israel. Several of these nine surgeons did their fellowship at Ryder Trauma Center (Dr. Yoram Klein, Dr. Dror Soffer and Dr. Guy Lin).

I find the field of trauma and acute care surgery most fascinating and my vision is to join and develop Rabin Medical Center trauma and acute care services. I feel very fortunate for being accepted to Ryder Trauma Center and for the support provided from you.

I look forward to return to Rabin Medical Center in one year and begin working as a skilled and experienced surgeon.

Thank you for your outstanding support.