(IsraelNN.com) Israel and China have joined forces, attempting to provide high quality health care for the elderly. Following a signed agreement between Beijing's Tsinghua University and the University of Haifa, a cadre of Chinese physicians and nurses will come to Haifa to receive training at the Israeli university's Laboratory for Geriatrics and Gerontology.


The China National Working Commission on the Aging was instrumental in advancing the agreement with the University of Haifa. The university won a tender to deal with the Chinese on the subject of Geriatric welfare, according to the University of Haifa's Focus Magazine, Summer, 2004 Edition.

The agreement came to fruition at March's world meeting of InterRAI in Berlin. InterRAI promotes the use of internationally standardized “Resident Assessment Instruments” for health care settings for the aged and the disabled.

Haifa's professors have worldwide reputations in the field of geriatrics, including Dr. Jacob Gindin, who was instrumental in leading the agreement between the two countries. Gindin as well as Professor Ariela Lowenstein, Head of the Center for the Study of the Aging, went to China's Tsinghua University in June to formally sign the agreement. Present at the signing were an array of high-ranking Chinese officials.

China has put care of the aged into its five-year national program, of which the training program in Haifa is a part. Additionally, China intends to construct gerontology centers that will apply the international set of practices and tools studied during the training. Following their training, the delegation studying in Mt. Carmel will return to establish a pilot health project in Beijing.