Maayan Hoffman takes readers inside Rabin Medical Center’s “dog medicine” program [1], where a tiny, tail-wagging therapy dog named Teddy is part of care, not a feel-good diversion.
In the Neurology Department, clinicians have initiated a study of patients in the acute phase following a stroke. The idea is simple: combine standard physiotherapy with structured sessions involving a trained medical therapy dog and see whether recovery improves. The team tracks progress with the standardized six-minute walk test and interviews that gauge motivation, cooperation, engagement, and mood. Senior nurse Keren Matry developed the protocol with physiotherapists Shlomi Shochat and Yuval Levinsky, alongside Dr. Yonatan Naftali.
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The research arrives at a raw moment. Since Oct. 7, 2023, the number of patients needing physical rehabilitation has climbed, and staff believe dogs can reach people when words fail. Matry recalls a wounded soldier who refused to speak until Teddy appeared; he cried, opened up, and placed his Givati Brigade beret on the dog’s head. Another patient, intubated after brain damage, opened his eyes and tried to follow Teddy after being guided to pet him.
Hospitals often avoid animal-assisted therapy over infection fears, so Rabin uses strict safeguards and nurse-led screening for allergies and complications.
Dr. Mark Hellmann says dogs can provide an alternate channel of communication and stimulation, and he cites broader research, including a Neurology study reporting a 43% average drop in 28-day seizure frequency among people paired with seizure-alert dogs.
The stroke study is expected to wrap in about a year. Read the full article [1] for the scenes, the science, and why Maayan Hoffman thinks more wards may soon want a wagging consult. The report is part of Trauma Tech, tracing Israel’s postwar rehab innovations with promise.