PIs:

-Prof. Shlomo Vinker (Leumit Health Services).

-Prof. Eyal Schwartzberg (School of Pharmacy, BGU).

-Prof. Tzahit Simon-Tuval (Health Policy and Management, BGU)

CIs: Ayala Rohald-Stern, PhD student

Grant #: BGU-CHER092024_1

Budget: 12,500 ILS

Period: November 2024-November 2025

Abstract of Final Report submitted in November 2025: An optimal adherence threshold for PCSK9 inhibitors was lower than the optimal adherence threshold commonly reported in the literature. Compared to others, adherent patients had greater LDL-c reduction rates, greater improvement in lipid profile and higher percentage of this group reached treatment goals of LDL-c. Adherence was related to fewer neurologist visits, and higher utilization of rehabilitation care.
No differences were noted for newly diagnosed CV-disease and other HCU. These findings can impact the development of patient support programs emphasizing the advantages even at partial adherence. Further assessment of medium-term adherence patterns of PCSK9 inhibitors, תidentification of adherence trajectories and their association with copayment level, is still in progress.

PIs:

-Prof. Moriah Ellen (Health Policy and Management, BGU)

-Prof. Paula Feder-Bubis (Health Policy and Management, BGU)

CIs: Reut Ron, PhD student

Grant #: BGU-CHER092024_2

Budget: 12,500 ILS

Period: November 2024-November 2025

Unraveling health insurance literacy and its impact on decision-making and double-health insurance in Israel

The quantitative and qualitative findings provide a multidimensional picture. The quantitative results show measurable improvements in knowledge, confidence, and behavior following a brief educational intervention, with some persistence at follow-up and evidence of real-world behavioral changes. The qualitative findings explain these improvements by highlighting how participants’ experiences of confusion, fear, and reliance on family or brokers shape their engagement with insurance. They also point to structural and cultural factors—such as lack of school-based education and normalization of confusion—that were not emphasized in earlier frameworks but emerged as highly salient in this context.

PIs:

-Dr. Naomi Gershoni (Economics, BGU).

-Dr. Ity Shurtz (Economics, BGU).

-Dr. Royi Barnea (Assuta Medical Centers)

CIs: Hadar Goldshtein, PhD student

Grant #: BGU-CHER092024_3

Budget: 12,500 ILS

Surgical team performance: Exploring the impact of shared experience, composition, and disruptions.

An integrated Assuta surgical database was successfully constructed and cleaned, linking detailed surgery-level data to individual-level records of team members. Overall, these data cover more than 700,000 surgeries performed between 2016 and 2024. A preliminary analysis of general surgeries and orthopedic surgeries revealed strong and clear associations between shared surgeon-anesthesiologist experience and surgery outcomes in terms of surgery duration, recovery and hospitalization durations). Based on these promising preliminary results, this research was awarded an ISF grant to support further analysis, including causal inference and expanding the analysis to include shared experience with additional team members (nurses, technicians, etc.), and long-term health outcomes.

PIs:

-Dr. Moran Koren (Engineering, BGU).

-Dr. Naomi Gershoni (Economics, BGU).

-Dr. Ity Shurtz (Economics, BGU)

Grant #: BGU-CHER092024_4

Budget: 12,500 ILS

Period: November 2024-November 2025

Surgical team performance: Exploring the impact of shared experience, composition, and disruptions.

Three large-scale administrative datasets were merged and processed: the Patient Transplant Records (PTR), the Standard Transplant Analysis and Research (STAR) dataset, and the Candidate Transplant Record (CTR). This process allowed us to construct the final sample for our analysis, which includes the universe of deceased donor kidney transplants in the New England and New York regions between 2017-2022. The comprehensive dataset covers approximately 6,000 potential transplants, which translates to a significantly larger number of observations on organ offers made to potential recipients and their subsequent decisions. The empirical analysis is in progress, namely, Difference-in-Differences (DID) to identify the causal impact of this merger.