Aaron Valero

Aaron Valero (; 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).

In the 1960s, Valero recognised the potential for synergy between the clinical medical staff at Rambam Hospital and engineers at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. Valero organised teams from the two institutions, which he headed up. This unique co-operation led to the first product of the soon to be established Biomedical Engineering Department of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. It was 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 and on his mother's side, in the late 15th century. His father, 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. Upon returning to Jerusalem in 1939, he volunteered to work at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. In 1941–1946, during World War II, he volunteered to join the British Army's Royal Army Medical Corps as a physician, where he reached the rank of major. In 1946, he joined the staff of the British Government Hospital in Haifa, which later became Rambam Hospital. In 1948–1949, during the Arab-Israeli War, he served as a regiment physician on Israel's Northern Front.

In 1950, he became Head of 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.