Aaron Valero

Aaron Valero
אהרון ואלרו
Born	1913 (1913) Jerusalem, Palestine, Ottoman Empire
Died	2000 (aged 86–87) Haifa, Israel
Scientific career
Fields	Medicine

Aaron Valero (Hebrew: אהרון ואלרו; 1913–2000) was an Israeli physician and educator who helped establish hospitals and medical schools, authored medical publications and contributed greatly to the advancement of medical education in Israel in the latter half of the 20th century.

Main achievements

Valero was the first to recognise and describe the outbreak of bubonic plague in Palestine ("Streptomycin in Bubonic Plague", British Medical Journal, 29 May 1948, pp. 1026–1027). A year later, he observed the outbreak of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in Palestine (Harefuah, Vol. XXXVI, No 9,36, pp. 1–3, 1 May 1949). In his 1953 publication he presented the first reported case of human Ornithosis in the Middle East ("Human Ornithosis in Israel", Harefuah, Vol XLV, No. 5, 1 September 1953).

Valero invented an electronic device capable of recording arterial pulsations and the mechanical events of the heart without actually making contact with the chest wall. This device was first described in the American Journal of Cardiology, 19 February 1967, Vol. 19, pp. 224–230 and in subsequent publications (list below).

Biography

Aaron Valero was born in Jerusalem to a distinguished Sephardic family which had settled in Palestine in the early 19th century. His grandfather, Chaim Aharon Valero, was a prominent Jerusalem banker. Valero's great-grandfather, Jacob Valero, established the first bank in Palestine. Yaakov Shaul Elyashar, the father of Valero's great-great-grandmother, had become Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel (Palestine) in 1893.

Valero attended the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jerusalem (after 1928 known as the Rehavia Gymnasium), and received an MB ChB degree from Birmingham University in England in 1938.

He opened the Department of Internal Medicine at Rambam Hospital. In 1956, he became Director of the Israeli Government's Poriya Hospital. In 1972, he was elected a tenured professor of the Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine of the Technion in Haifa. In 1980, he became the Dean of Medical Education of the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion. In 1980–1986, he also served as Head of the Department of Internal Medicine at Nahariya Hospital.

Publications

Books

Valero authored two medical books:

• Clinical E.C.G., 1973, Technion Michlol publishing house
• Bedside Detection, 1980

Articles (partial list)

• Valero et al., "Focal Cardiography – An experimental Study in Dogs", Israel Journal of Medical Sciences, Jan–Feb 1969, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 13–22
• Valero, "Focal Displacement Cardiography for Bedside Detection of Myocardial Dyskinesis", The American Journal of Cardiology, April 1970, Vol 25. pp. 443–449
• Valero et al., "Effect of Exercise and Acclimatization on displacement apex Cardiogram in Normal Young Subjects", British Heart Journal January 1971, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 37–45
• Valero,"Atrial transport dysfunction in acute myocardial infarction", The American Journal of Cardiology, Volume 16, Issue 1, pp. 22–30

Legacy

In 2002, The Professor Aaron Valero Fund for the Advancement of Medical Education was established and endowed by the Valero family in memory of Dr. Valero. The Fund enables guest speakers from Israel and abroad to give workshops, training sessions and to participate in the Professor Aaron Valero Patient – Physician Relationship Day at the Technion.

Bibliography

• Glass and Kark, "Sephardi Entrepreneurs in Jerusalem-The Valero Family 1800–1948" Gefen Publishing House, 2007.ISBN 978-965-229-396-1
• Kark and Glass, "The Valero Family: Seven Generations in Jerusalem, 1800–1949" Gefen Publishing House, 2005. ISBN 965-229-336-9
• Levy, "The History of Medicine in the Holy Land: 1799–1948", Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House and B. Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 1998. ISBN 965-02-0114-9
• Hurwich, "Military Medicine in Israel, the pre-state years, 1911–1948" Ministry of Defence Publishing House, 1977. ISBN 965-05-0896-1
• Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Division of Public Affairs and Resource Development
• Kark, Ruth; B. Glass, Joseph (2004). "The Valero Family: Sephardi-Arab Relations in Ottoman and Mandatory Jerusalem". Jerusalem Quarterly (21): 27. doi:10.70190/jq.I21.p27.