BGU Study Shows Need For In-Hospital Protocols
BGU Study Shows Need For In-Hospital Protocols
November 7, 2025
Medical Research, Natural Sciences
The Jerusalem Post— In the wake of the deadly events of October 7 in southern Israel, a major study conducted by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in collaboration with BGU-affiliated hospital, Soroka University Medical Center, underscores how the hospital handled an extraordinary surge of casualties. The study emphasizes that the hospital’s pre-existing emergency protocols and in-hospital triage systems were critical in managing the influx of wounded patients and maintaining functionality under extreme pressure.
BGU’s research identifies key operational innovations: rapid mobilization of staff, adaptive use of AI imaging resources (including repurposing non-traditional CT scanners), and streamlined radiology workflows that notably decreased CT turnaround times from a baseline average of 54 minutes to just 28 minutes during the incident. These innovations reflect BGU’s contribution to emergency medicine research and hospital system resilience, demonstrating that academic–clinical collaboration can directly impact crisis operations.
“Prior mass casualty incident reports such as those following the Boston Marathon bombing and the 2011 Norway attacks taught us a lot about radiology under pressure,” Dr. Gal Ben-Arie, senior radiologist and head of Innovation & Artificial Intelligence in Imaging at Soroka and vice-dean for innovation affairs at the Faculty of Health Sciences at BGU to which it’s affiliated, said to the Jerusalem Post.
The study further details how the hospital confronted not only the injuries related to the attack but also had to continue routine care for other patients. BGU’s work helped highlight the importance of having parallel care pathways so that non-incident patients aren’t neglected even when mass casualty protocols are triggered. The research thereby positions BGU’s Faculty of Health Sciences as advancing knowledge around how to maintain a continuum of care during prolonged emergencies.
The team also had to treat patients whose emergencies were unrelated to the brutal terrorist attack. They established a parallel system for non–mass-casualty cases, ensuring every patient received clinical evaluation and urgent imaging when necessary, allowing routine emergency care to continue without interruption.
“That balancing act is a key part of the story of such large-scale mass casualty incidents and underscores disaster plans that prioritize life-threatening trauma without abandoning other acute patients,” Ben-Arie said to the Jerusalem Post.
“Staff worked under extreme physical and emotional strain, often caring for patients while simultaneously worrying about their own families during the attacks. That resilience is an inseparable part of this experience and underscores the need to build systems that safeguard both patients and providers during prolonged mass casualty incidents, whether precipitated by terror attacks, as in this case, natural disasters, or other crises,” said Ben-Arie to the Jerusalem Post.
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