Current Environment:

Medical Services

Programs & Services

Languages

  • English
  • Arabic

Education

Medical School

American University of Beirut

1984, Beirut, Lebanon

Internship

American University of Beirut Medical Center

1984, Beirut, Lebanon

Residency

American University of Beirut Medical Center

1987, Beirut, Lebanon

Residency

St. Joseph's Hospital

1989, Phoenix, AZ

Fellowship

Emory University

1992, Atlanta, GA

Certifications

  • American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (Child and Adolescent Neurology)

Professional History

After completing my training in 1992, I was part of the Department of Pediatrics at the American University of Beirut Medical Center until 2000. I had a busy clinical and teaching load in the outpatient clinic, inpatient consultations, inpatient service, and reading EEGs. I had the opportunity to start a few research projects, with the Microbiology Department investigating the organisms causing chronic otitis media and meningitis or encephalitis in our Hospital, and with colleagues from Neurology and other departments on new approaches to therapy and unusual complications of antiepileptic drugs.

Since joining Boston Children’s Hospital, my clinical work includes teaching residents in the outpatient clinic and on the inpatient and consultation services during my rotations there. I also see my patients on my own in my office on Fegan 11.

A few years ago, we started the NOW (Neurologist of the Week) clinic, which is an urgent clinic where I see with a Nurse Practitioner children referred by primary care or emergency room physicians. I see General Neurology patients, but have a special interest in Headache and Head Injury. I see many international patients.

Publications

I believe that the medical team (physicians/nurses) and the patients/parents are partners in promoting health, and preventing and treating diseases. The former bring their medical knowledge and technical expertise and the latter bring their beliefs and hopes, and they should work together, while respecting each other’s ideas, and accepting suggestions and advice.

As a child, I used to volunteer to help my mother who was in charge of medical and social services at the Lebanese Red Cross. As a teen, I was a first aid rescuer with the same organization during the civil war in Lebanon, and was involved in a field hospital established by the ICRC. I did not think twice when it was time for me to choose a career.