Naomi Amir

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Naomi Amir
Born
Naomi Kassan

January 23, 1931
Bikur Holim Hospital
  • Shaare Zedek Medical Center

    • Naomi Amir (

    Bikur Holim Hospital. She later expanded this clinic into a full-service diagnostic, evaluation, and intervention center. In 1990 she and her team moved to Shaare Zedek Medical Center. She is credited as "the founder of modern child neurology in Israel".[2][3]

    Early life and education

    Naomi Kassan was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Shalom Kassan, a Jewish Palestinian émigré, and Eva Dushkin, a first-generation American child of Eastern European immigrants.[1] She had one older sibling.[1] When she was four, her family moved to Palestine, where her father was a judge in the Mandatory Palestine legal service.[1] Eighteen months later her mother took the children back to the United States for a year, returning to Palestine in 1937. The following year her mother returned to New York City permanently with the children.[1]

    Naomi graduated from

    New York University School of Medicine in 1952.[1] Desiring to live in Israel, she undertook her residency at the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem beginning in 1953.[1] She completed her second M.D. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1957.[4]

    Career

    When Amir chose to specialize in

    Bikur Holim Hospital in Jerusalem. Kagan offered her a small room separate from the pediatrics ward to use as a neurological clinic.[1]

    Before establishing her practice, Amir returned to New York for two years to take a clinical fellowship at the Neurological Institute of

    Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.[1] She returned to Israel in 1968 to establish the first pediatric neurology rehabilitation daycare center in the country at Bikur Holim Hospital.[1][3] This center offered both inpatient and outpatient services, and included a rehabilitation kindergarten in which Amir and her team could evaluate interventions over the long-term.[2][3] In 1979 Amir expanded the center into a full-service diagnostic, evaluation, and intervention day hospital.[1] In its first six years, the day-hospital screened more than 1,000 children.[5] A sleep clinic for children was installed in 1984.[5]

    In 1990 Amir and her team of seven specialists moved to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, which provided an entire wing for her day-hospital.[1] In 2009 the rehabilitation kindergarten moved into its own facility adjacent to the medical center. Approximately 70 children ages 3 to 7 are enrolled in the kindergarten, half of whom will eventually enter regular schools.[6]

    Amir also practiced at the Spafford Clinic in the

    Muslim children, and the Mukassed Hospital on the Mount of Olives.[1] She set up a number of satellite neurology clinics in Arab villages.[3]

    Research interests

    Amir co-edited two books and co-authored numerous peer-reviewed articles. Her research interests included cognitive development, epilepsy, neurometabolic disorders, aphasia, and developmental disorders.[1][4]

    Amir joined the staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1974 as a lecturer. She became a clinical senior lecturer in 1983 and a clinical associate professor in 1993.[4]

    Honors

    She received the Israeli

    Women of Achievement Award in 1989.[1]

    Personal life

    Naomi married Shlomo Amir in March 1955. They had two sons and one daughter.[1] Naomi died of cancer on January 4, 1995.[1]

    Selected bibliography

    Books

    • Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine: Childhood Seizures.
      ISBN 978-3-8055-6009-2
      .       (co-edited with S. Shinnar)
    • Pediatric Neurology: Behavior and Cognition of the Child with Brain Dysfunction.
      ISBN 978-3-8055-5223-3. (co-edited with Isabelle Rapin
      )

    Articles

    References

    1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Moore, Deborah Dash (March 1, 2009). "Naomi Amir". Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
    2. ^
      S2CID 37784146
      .
    3. ^
      S2CID 38479708
      . Retrieved December 10, 2016.
    4. ^ a b c "Naomi Amir, Clinic Assoc. Professor in Pediatrics". Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
    5. ^ a b "Behind the Headlines: A Unique Sleep Clinic in Israel". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. September 25, 1985. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
    6. ^ Livneh, Idit (January 2, 2009). "מרכז להתערבות מוקדמת" [Early Intervention Center]. Maariv (in Hebrew). Retrieved December 11, 2016.
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