Prof. Asnat Walfisch

• I have earned my MD at the Ben Gurion University in Israel. I later completed my residency in OBGYN at “Sheba” Tel Hashomer Medical Center and my fellowship in Feto-maternal Medicine at Toronto University.
• As a physician and a feto-maternal medicine specialist, I treat women suffering from various placental related pregnancy complications. Hence, I devote my research to both clinical as well as epidemiological and basic science aspects of the pathological human placenta.  I have served as head of the High Risk pregnancy units at Hillel-Yaffe Medical Center and later at the Soroka University Medical Center.
• Since January 2019 I am Head the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at Hadassah Mt. Scopus Medical Center.
• In the past, during my residency and fellowship I have focused mainly on the teratogenic effect of different exposures during pregnancy, and exploration of various methods of labor induction.

• In the last few years my research was mainly focused on different aspects of the morbid placenta as well as epidemiological studies focused on different associations between pregnancy complications and long term health of the mother and offspring. Some of the leading publications on this topic from the past year include:

1. Paz-Levy D, Sheiner E, Wainstok T, Sergienko R, Landau D, and Walfisch A (PI). Evidence that children born at early term (37-38-6/7 weeks) are at increased risk for diabetes and obesity-related disorders. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2017 Jul 17.
2. Zamstein O, Sheiner E, Wainstock T, Landau D, Walfisch A (PI). Maternal Gestational Diabetes and Long-Term Respiratory Related Hospitalizations of the Offspring. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2018 Apr 4.
3. Imterat M, Wainstock T, Sheiner E, Kapelushnik J, Fischer L, Walfisch A (PI). Advanced maternal age during pregnancy and the risk for malignant morbidity in the childhood. Eur J Pediatr. 2018 Apr 8.
4. Ben-Shmuel A, Sheiner E, Wainstock T, Landau D, Vaknin F,Walfisch A (PI). The association between gender and pediatric respiratory morbidity. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2018 June 26.

RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS

• We have an established network based on a huge combined database of all delivery data and long term hospitalization records on both mother and offspring. The database includes deliveries occurring since 1991 at the Soroka University medical center (~250,000). Large cohort studies with a follow-up of over 20 years were and are being done focusing on different exposures during pregnancy and delivery and their impact on future health of both the mother and her offspring. We have recently started several research projects which are based on the combination of the Hadassah birth database and the Soroka database and published several abstracts in international maternal fetal medicine conferences as follows:
• Hochler H, Sheiner E, Yagel S, Walfisch A, and Wainstock T. Grand-multiparity in patients with an unscarred uterus and the risk for uterine rupture: a multicenter cohort study. Presented at the 38th Annual SMFM Pregnancy Meeting in Dallas, Texas, January 2018.
• Hochler H, Wainstock T, Lipschuetz M, Sheiner E, Ezra Y, Yagel S, Walfisch A. Labor induction in parous women post cesarean: Birth order and the risk of uterine rupture. Presented at the 39th Annual SMFM Pregnancy Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 2019.

OTHER KEY PUBLICATIONS ARE DETAILED HERE:

1. Walfisch A, Beloosesky R, Shrim A, Hallak M.: Adhesion Prevention post Cesarean Delivery –Evidence, and lack of it. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 2014;211(5):446-452. Systematic Review.

2. Shrem G, Egozi T, Naeh A, Hallak M, Walfisch A.: Pre-cesarean Staphylococcus aureus nasal screening and decolonization: a prospective randomized controlled trial. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2016 Feb 9:1-25.

3. Krieger Y, Walfisch A, Sheiner E.: Surgical site infection following cesarean deliveries: trends and risk factors. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2016 Mar 29:1-5.
4. Baumfeld Y, Sheiner E, Wainstock T, Segal I, Sergienko R, Landau D, Walfisch A.: Elective Cesarean Delivery at Term and the Long-Term Risk for Neurological Morbidity of the Offspring. Am J Perinatol. 2018 Mar 6.

5. Baumfeld Y, Walfisch A, Wainstock T, Segal I, Sergienko R, Landau D, Sheiner E.: Elective cesarean delivery at term and the long-term risk for respiratory morbidity of the offspring. Eur J Pediatr. 2018 Aug 8.

6. Wainstock T, Walfisch A, Shoham-Vardi I, Segal I, Sergienko R, Landau D, Sheiner E.: Term Elective Cesarean Delivery and Offspring Infectious Morbidity – A Population Based Cohort study. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2018 Sep 25.