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Dr. Nadim Cortas

Dr. Nadim Cortas

Chairperson

Biography

Nadim Cortas MD is Emeritus Dean and Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the American University of Beirut (AUB). He is actively involved in developing a syllabus for the medical curriculum at AUB, in teaching and in consulting on issues of education, health care administration, and strategic planning. From 1999-2009 Dr. Cortas was the Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC). He is well published and internationally well known in academic medicine.

Dr. Cortas received his MD degree at AUB in 1967. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine at AUB Medical Center, and three years of postdoctoral fellowship in Pharmacology and Endocrinology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore MD (USA), 1969-72.  In 1972, he joined the Faculty of Medicine at AUB and rose to the rank of Professor. He chaired the committee that changed the pre-medical requirements and, during the mid1970s was active in developing the discipline based curriculum with significant increase in non-didactic teaching.

After taking an appointment from 1984-1994 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S) of Columbia University in New York City, initially as Visiting Associate Professor of Biochemistry and then as Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, he was recruited back to AUB in 1994, as Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology & Therapeutics, and Associate Dean for Research & Development .  He was appointed Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean, of the Faculty of Medicine and the AUB Medical Center, 1999-2009.

At P&S, he pursued his research career and established a distinguished research record in Biochemistry and Pharmacology.  He received a number of research awards including the prestigious Ludwig Schafer award. From 1990 to 1994, he also served as Director of the Par-enteral Nutrition Service at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.

At AUB, he has been responsible for building a multidisciplinary Core Research Facility in the Basic Medical Sciences and established its infrastructure. He was Chairman of the Inter-Faculty Committee and Coordinator of the pan-university Graduate Environmental Sciences program (1994-2000). He established the Environment core research analytical chemistry facility.

As Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean, Dr. Cortas worked tirelessly and passionately in restructuring both academically and financially, the Faculty of Medicine, the school of Nursing and the Medical Center. He changed the landscape of Medical Practice by introducing a Medical Practice Plan (MPP) which fuelled the recruitment of 110 highly credentialed faculty members in Medicine and 10 in Nursing. The MPP provided initiation and ongoing funds for research, resulting in a 4 fold increase in research output, both in quality and quantity, which led to a five-fold increase in receipt of competitive external funding.  He introduced a system for effort analysis and evaluation which provided standards for recruitment and promotion and established an ongoing Performance Improvement process and led the process that made AUB Medical Center (AUBMC) acquire the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and the Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditations and receive the prestigious Magnet designation. He built the foundations for revamping the Curriculum at the Faculty of Medicine. During this period, the faculty of medicine became accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges & Schools, USA; and the School of Nursing, by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. He forged Partnerships with the St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis, The Cleveland Clinic, MD Anderson, Sloane Kettering and Johns Hopkins University and established exchange programs with many prominent academic centers abroad. A joint AUB and MUSC (Medical University of South Carolina) MD/PhD program is successfully ongoing which has several graduate students enrolled in it, 4 graduated so far. He presented to the Board of Trustees in 2009, a detailed Strategic Plan for the Faculty of Medicine, School of Nursing and the Medical Center, with 5, 10 and 20 year landmarks.

Dr. Cortas is very active in his community and has chaired and served on the Governing Boards of two of the well known not- for- profit k-12 schools in Lebanon, Al Ahliah and Brumana High School. He, currently, chairs the Al Ahliah Board of Trustees.  He served on committees of the Ministry of Health, Republic of Lebanon, and as a World Health Organization (WHO) consultant.

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