Jacob Lavee

Prof. Jacob Lavee received his M.D. magna cum laude degree from the Sackler School of Medicine, Israel, in 1977 and was subsequently trained in cardiothoracic surgery at the Sheba Medical Center. In 1989-1990 Prof. Lavee joined the University Of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) as clinical heart and lung transplantation Fellow, during which period he won a Fellowship Award of the American Society of Artificial Internal Organs. Upon returning to Israel Prof. Lavee has founded the Heart Transplantation Unit at the Sheba Medical Center, which since has become Israel’s largest unit of its kind.

In 1997 Prof. Lavee implanted the first left Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) in Israel (HeartMate, Thoratec) and since then has become a national authority in the management of terminally ill heart failure patients. Facing an ever existing shortage of human heart donors, Prof. Lavee has joined the Thoratec company and the UPMC Artificial Heart and Lung Program in their efforts to find a permanent mechanical alternative to heart transplantation, and on July 2000 has performed the world’s first human implant of the Heart Mate II Left Ventricular-Assist System.

The major focus of Prof. Lavee’s research are the mechanisms and management of bleeding problems in patients undergoing open-heart operations, on which he published numerous articles in the medical literature and an extensive textbook. In addition he heads a research on a novel technique to prolong preservation of donor hearts for transplantation, utilizing antifreeze proteins derived from the blood of arctic fish.

Prof. Lavee is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine of the Tel Aviv University. He has been the chairman of the Israel Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery between 1999 and 2004, and since 2008 is the President of the Israel Society of Transplantation.