Profiling New Faculty

Activities of the Center For Health Research (CHR)

Department of Community Engagement

The Department of Community Engagement at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Balamand continued its community development projects in 2024.

The Landmines Resource Center
In partnership with the Lebanon Mine Action Center of the Lebanese Army, the Landmines Resource Center continued its risk reduction and risk education efforts with UNICEF funding. It contributed to the national campaign on the dangers of white phosphorous and unexploded ordnance recently used in the border villages of southern Lebanon. More than 5000 children and caregivers were covered by EORE in Akkar, Bekaa, South, and Nabatiyeh. New material on white phosphorous and on unexploded ordnance was produced and distributed.
With ITF funding from Slovenia, the Landmines Resource Center continued its mine victim assistance interventions. It helped 15 survivors with prosthetics, 16 with medical assistance, and 48 with psychosocial support. Six received income generation projects.

The Healthier Society Project
With support from UNICEF, DoCE team trained 250 community health workers for the primary health care centers of the Lebanon Ministry of Public Health. A curriculum was developed and 8 trainings were conducted in the 8 governorates of Lebanon. In addition, UNICEF implementing partners were trained on social behavior change, on community engagement, and on communication.

The Healthier School
DoCE Team are updating nutrition curriculum of the school health program at Lebanon Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

Health Informatics Certificate

The Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Balamand has taken a pioneering step in addressing the evolving landscape of healthcare with its launch of the Post Graduate Program in Health Informatics.
This program aims to provide students from different backgrounds with essential knowledge and skills to navigate the intersection of healthcare and information technology. Designed to meet the growing demand for professionals in health informatics, the program emphasizes both conceptual frameworks and practical applications of health information systems, to drive technological advancements within healthcare institutions.
The program’s 12 credits curriculum, comprising five courses with a capstone project, covers a broad spectrum of topics such as health data management, information systems in healthcare, and telemedicine. It’s an online course, which gives the flexibility to students to manage their studies alongside their professional commitments.

Mrs Cynthia Abi Khalil and Dr. Antoine Saab are currently teaching the Health Informatics courses at FHS.

Accreditation Updates

• Medical Laboratory Sciences
The MLS department decided to apply for the Accreditation Agency for Health and Social Sciences (AHPGS). The decision to shift from applying to an American Accreditation to a European Accreditation stems from the fact that it was not feasible to recruit an accreditation officer holding the ACSP board certification. The department will start the process September 2024 by appointing a task force for this purpose.

• Nursing
The hybrid site visit for Initial Accreditation of the Nursing Program is scheduled to take place October 28, through November 1, 2024. The self-study is currently being finalized for submission to ACEN in September 2024.

• Nutritional Sciences
The Department of Nutritional Sciences (NUSC) at the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) has applied to the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND®) to open an ACEND accredited Nutrition and Dietetics Foreign Dietitian Education Program (FDE) to prepare Registered Dietitian Nutritionists. The meticulous work was primarily led by the Department Chair assisted by the 5 members of the department. The Program has identified its strengths, areas of improvement and future plans in order to comply with the required 2022 ACEND standards. The self-study report was submitted in January 2024. The ACEND accreditation hybrid site visit took place in April in Chicago, USA. The ACEND review team met with the Dean of the Faculty and the Department Chair in Chicago and the meetings with UOB administration and academic services, faculty, students, and alumni took place online. The review team was impressed with the comprehensiveness of the self-study and the virtual meetings with all FHS Nutrition constituents and UOB academic service departments. The ACEND site visit report was received on June 7, 2024 and the department’s response was submitted on July 11, 2024. The ACEND Board will review the site visit report program response at a Board meeting within eight months of the site visit. Approximately two weeks after this meeting, the NUSC department will be notified in writing of the Board’s decision.

• Public Health Department
The Department of Public Health at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Balamand, is working towards applying for the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) accreditation for both its undergraduate and graduate programs. The program has submitted the Initial Application (IAS) in December 2023. The program received acceptance of its IAS with some comments and suggestions from CEPH. The program resubmitted the revised IAS and is currently awaiting further feedback to proceed with the self-study and eventual site visits.

Summary About Student Recruitment Action Plan

The recruitment committee at FHS was proactive in doing many activities in close collaboration with the recruitment office. The committee scheduled two online information sessions, committee members contributed to many school visits, open doors and school fairs. The committee organized Health Open Day at Dekwaneh campus in collaboration with Mount Lebanon Hospital and supported by the Dekwaneh municipality. The event featured active participation from various departments and programs within FHS. One of the highlights of the Open Health Day was the provision of free medical examinations by Healthcare professionals from MLHUMC. The committee will follow up on applicants who select FHS as their first choice and assist them in completing the registration process.

Partnership Highlight

The Nursing Program works in partnership with many hospitals in Beirut, the North, Chouf, as well as Mount Lebanon areas. The majority are university hospitals, undergoing or have international accreditation from highly recognized accreditation bodies like JCI and Magnet, in addition to the MOPH accreditation. Some of these hospitals are: Mount Lebanon Hospital – University Medical Center, Saint George Hospital – University Medical Center, CMC, AUB Medical Center, Middle East Institute of Health – University Hospital, Notre Dame des Secours Hospital – University Medical Center, ND Maritime Hospital, Ain and Zain Medical Village, Sacre-Coeur Hospital – University Center, Lebanese Hospital Geitaoui – University Medical Center, etc.

The Nursing Program also collaborates with many Primary Health Care Centers that receive clients from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds and provide a variety of medico-social services. Some of these centers are Karagheuzian Primary Healthcare Center, Order of Malta Khaldieh Center, Jinishian Memorial Program, and Obey Primary Healthcare Center.

MOUs or agreements are developed with these healthcare centers and are updated as appropriate. The collaboration between the healthcare centers and the Nursing Program benefits both parties. It strengthens the relationship between academia and practice, which minimizes the gap between the two fields, provides opportunities to organize common scientific, staff-development, and community activities. For instance, within the course Nursing in the Community, nursing students in Dekwaneh, Koura, and Souk ElGhareb Campuses organize on yearly basis community projects that benefit the community of interest. Another example is the Health Open Day that was organized on June 12, 2024 in collaboration with Mount Lebanon Hospital at Dekwaneh Campus and targeted the large neighboring community.

Adding to that, nursing students have the opportunity to practice in healthcare settings that apply evidence-based and standardized nursing care. Preceptors are chosen to help them achieve their clinical learning goals and get comfortably integrated in the healthcare system. In turn, the preceptorship role enhances nurses’ professional experience and growth, and enriches their CV. It is also an opportunity to get access to all UOB databases and other resources, collaborate with nursing faculty, contribute to theoretical courses, and gain continuing education hours.

Profiling Scientific Productivity of Public Health Department

Dr. Myriam Mrad

1. Participated in the International Human Exposome network (IHEN) meeting in Feb 2024 in Brussels.
2. Dr. Myriam Mrad, was invited by the World Health Organization (WHO) to participate in the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH) Global Meeting, held in Madrid, Spain. The meeting, spanning March 4 and 5, centered on the theme “Transforming health systems in the face of climate change”. Building upon the health outcomes of COP26, COP27 and COP28, the meeting sought to refine and validate the priorities and strategic directions of ATACH and its working groups till the end of 2025. The aim is to support countries in advancing climate change and health implementation and strengthening collaboration for driving implementation at country level.
3. Presentation on climate change and health waves and the role of coordination between academia and different institutions, Ministry of Environment Lebanon, May 20, 2024
4. Presentation on Climate change and health research in Lebanon at IOM meeting in relation to the project Harnessing Synergies between Climate Change Adaptation and Risk Reduction in Migrant-Inclusive Health System Responses, May 2, 2024.
5. Expert opinion on Air pollution and health effects in Beirut organized by the Progressive Socialist Party on June 3, 2024.
6. Presentation about Air pollution: a proven risk factor of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases at the 10th International Society of Hypertension Middle East and North Africa Regional Advisory Group Scientific Session, June 7, 2024.
7. Consultation on research agenda for action on climate and health, WHO, June 24-27, 2024.

Mr. Emile Whaibeh
Mr. Emile Whaibeh had the wonderful opportunity to participate and present his work at the ISEE ISEE Young Conference in Rennes, France June 5-7, 2024. His presentation focused on the associations between environmental exposures and the mental health of pregnant women in the Environmental Exposures in Lebanese Infants (EELI) cohort study.

Ms. Jowy Abi Hanna
Ms. Jowy Abi Hanna had the opportunity to present the research she is working on as a PhD student at the 5th ISEE Europe Young and Early Career Researchers Conference in Rennes, France, on June 8, 2024. She delivered a speed talk on "Environmental Exposures in Lebanese Infants (EELI): Longitudinal Birth Cohort Examining the Effects on Neurocognitive and Psychomotor Development" during the session focused on brain and neurodevelopment. In addition, she participated in a one-day workshop titled "From Science to Policy: An Interactive Game to Understand the Development of Environmental Health Policy" and attended a two-day conference on environmental health

Dr. Nivine Abbas
Delivered a talk on ethical guidelines for environmental epidemiology research. The presentation focused on the concepts of conflict of interest and green washing, as well as case studies and discussions of the related ethical challenges.

Dr. Jessica Saliba
Participated in the International Human Exposome network (IHEN) meeting in Feb 2024 in Brussels.
Participated in the Machine Learning Workshop in November 2023 at AUB.

FHS Recent Publications

1. Makhoul, M. , Noureddine, S.,  Abu-Saad Huijer, H., Fahood, L., Fares, S., Uthman,I.,  French, F., France, C. (2024). Psychometric Properties of the Arabic Version of the Pain Resilience Scale Among Lebanese Adults with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain". Pain Research and Management Journal, In Press.


2. Mercante, A., Owens, J., Bruni, O., Nunes, ML Gringras, P.,  Xin Li, J., Papa, S., Kreicbergs, U., Wolfe, J., Zernikow, B., Lacerda, A., Benini, F., Pediatric Sleep and Palliative Care Group....Abu-Saad Huijer, H., et al. (2024).International consensus on sleep problems in pediatric palliative care: paving the way. Sleep Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.05.042 In Press.


3. Al Bayrakdar, A., Noureddine, S., Puzantian, H., Abu-Saad Huijer, H., Nasrallah, M., Joiner, KL., Martyn-Nemeth, P., Tfayli, H. (2024). Emerging Adults Living with Type 1 Diabetes in a Low-Middle Income Country: A Mixed Methods Study. Nursing Research. In Press.


4. Saad Rassam, R., Abu-Saad Huijer, H., Noureddine, S., Smith Lavoie, E., Wolfe, J., Fares, S., Abboud, M.. (2024).  Parents providing palliative care for children with cancer. E cancermedicalscience https://doi.org/10.3332/ecancer.2024.1724


5. Etzel, Ruth A.; Abbas, Nivine H.; Anastario, Michael P.; Mustapha, Adetoun; Osuolale, Olayinka; Sarkar, Atanu; Soyiri, Ireneous N.; Whaibeh, Emile; Soskolne, Colin L.. Ethics guidelines for environmental epidemiologists: 2023 revision. Environmental Epidemiology 8(2):p e299, April 2024. | DOI: 10.1097/EE9.0000000000000299


6. Khomsi, Kenzaa,; Bouzghiba, Houria; Mendyl, Abderrahmane; Al-Delaimy, Ahmed K.; Dahri, Amalf; Saad-Hussein, Amal; Balaw, Ghada; El Marouani, Ihssane; Sekmoudi, Imane; Adarbaz, Mouaad; Khanjani, Narges; Abbas, Nivine. (2024). Bridging research-policy gaps: An integrated approach. Environmental Epidemiology 8(1): p e281.| DOI: 10.1097/EE9.0000000000000281.


7. Nasr, R., Abdel Rahman, A., Haddad, C., Nasr, N., Ismail, I., Salameh, P., Alami, N.. The impact of financial stress on student well being in Lebanese higher education : BMC Public Health (2024) 24: 1809.


8. Azar, M ., Lamaa, S., Kordahi Badr, L. & Sneifer, E. (2024), The Psychological and Sexual Impact of Infertility on Couples. Journal of Women Health Care and Issues. 7(1); DOI:10.31579/2642-9756/178


9. Molecular characterization of carbapenem and ceftazidime-avibactam-resistant Enterobacterales and horizontal spread of blaNDM-5gene at a Lebanese medical center. Ghena Sobh, George Araj, Marc Finianos, Tsolaire Sourenian, Jaroslav Hrabak, Cpstas Pappagianitsis, Mira El Chaar, Ibrahim Bitar. Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol. June 2024. 


10. Phenotypic and Molecular Characterization of Multi-drug Resistant Klebsiella spp. Isolates Recovered from Clinical Settings. Hassan Diab; Tamima Jisr; Mira El Chaar; Edmond Abboud, Sima Tokajian*. Infection, genetic and evolution. March 2024 


11. Prevalence of enteric pathogens in patients with diarrhea: A one year surveillance study in Lebanon.  Jad Mohtar, Hiba Mallah, Tamima Jisr, Shaza El Soussi, Rania Naoufal, Mira El Chaar*. Accepted. BMC infectious diseases. February 2024


12. Longitudinal genomic surveillance of multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli carriage in Lebanon : The predominance of circulating ST131‐M27 clade. Mira El Chaar*, Yaralynn Khoury, Gavin Douglas, Tamima Jisr, Shaza El Soussi, Samir El Kazzi, Jesse Shapiro*. Microbiology spectrum. January 2024


13. El Osmani, N., Corinne Prévostel, Laurence Picque Lasorsa, Mohammad El Harakeh, Zeina Radwan, Hiba Mawlawi, Marwan El Sabban  6 , Margret Shirinian  , Zeina Dassouki. Vitamin C enhances co-localization of novel TET1 nuclear bodies with both Cajal and PML bodies in colorectal cancer cells. Epigenetics. 2024 Dec;19(1):2337142.doi: 10.1080/15592294.2024.2337142.


14. Radwan, Z., Mariam Rifi; Mario Karam; Hiba Mawlawi; Marwan El Sabban; Zeina Dassouki. The Red Algae Jania rubens Sensitizes Colon Cancer Cells to Doxorubicin Chemotherapy. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics June 2024, 389 (S3) 245; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1124/jpet.245.910660


15. M. Rizk , R. Atallah, J. Maria EL Khazen, Examination of the natural mineral water quality in the Kesserwan region, Lebanon, Heliyon 10 (2024) e33699. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e33699


16. Akbar Z, Kunhipurayil HH, Saliba J, Ahmad J, Al-Mansoori L, Al-Khatib HA, Al Thani AA, Shi Z, Shaito AA. The Association between Lifestyle Factors and COVID-19: Findings from Qatar Biobank. Nutrients. 2024 Apr 3;16(7):1037. doi: 10.3390/nu16071037. PMID: 38613072; PMCID: PMC11013885.


17. Hadid, M., Alwan, N., Dimassi, H., Deghel, M., El Khatib,S., Serhan, M. & Hassan, Hussein. (2024). Microbial assessment of commercial pet foods marketed in the United Arab Emirates. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1389981.


18. Serhan, M ., Beyrouthy, M., Menhem, C., Mattar, J., Hassan, H. (2024). Health Potential of Zhourat Middle East Herbal Tea. In: Mérillon, JM., Riviere, C., Lefèvre, G. (eds) Natural Products in Beverages. Reference Series in Phytochemistry. Springer, Cham.  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04195-2_128-1.


19. Serhan, M. , Hourieh, H., El Deghel, M., & Serhan, C. (2022). Hygienic sanitary risk and microbiological quality of meat and meat-contact surfaces in traditional butcher shops and retail establishments- lessons from a developing country. International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 34(1), 600–610. https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2022.2161487. 

Students’ Achievement

Master of Public Health student, Alicia Abi Nader, represented the FHS Public Health Department in the “Workshop for Building Countries’ Capacities on Estimating the Health Impacts of Air Pollution Using Time-Series Analysis,” which took place from February 25 to February 28 in Amman, Jordan. The workshop, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region Office (EMRO), aimed to equip health and environmental professionals with optimal methodologies for conducting time series regression analyses, thereby facilitating the precise estimate of risk ratios for certain pollutant-outcome pairs in our region.
Alicia also attended the ISEE Young Conference in Rennes, France June 5-7, 2024. It was a fantastic opportunity to connect with fellow young researchers and share our work in environmental health.
Alicia visited the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health under the GEOHealth Hub for Climate Change in the MENA region program, where she had the opportunity to conduct her MPH research analysis on the Beirut Air Pollution and Health Effects study Phase 2. During her visit from April 20 to May 11, 2024, she focused on:

• - Learning R coding
• - Understanding environmental epidemiology study designs
• - Attending insightful lectures on Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology, Atmospheric Environment, and Human Health and Global Environmental Change.

Alumni Achievements

Alumni achievement from Nutritional sciences

Summary of MLS Alumni achievements

Graduates of the MLS program continue to make outstanding progress toward their future and the opportunity to excel in a variety of fields. Below are few highlights of different achievements of MLS alumni.

Randi Issa: Associate Site Activation Manager at IQVIA Canada, a global provider of advanced analytics, technology solutions, and contract research services to the life sciences industry.

Jad Sassine: Completed his Master's and PhD in molecular microbiology at Newcastle University. He was a research associate at the University of Oxford and currently works at Oxford Nanopore.

Mary Habib: Completed her master's in forensic science with a concentration in molecular and toxicology in New York. Initially, she worked in a clinical lab validating various infectious disease assays for New York State approval. Currently, she manages the molecular department at NY Cancer & Blood Specialists and has been appointed to manage another lab specializing in Next-Generation Sequencing in New Jersey.

Ibrahim Nassif: Completed his Master's at UOB. In his current position, he leads a team of 13 individuals handling customer complaints related to Thermo Fisher Scientific products in the NEMEA region. Prior to that, he worked as a technical application scientist, assisting customers, troubleshooting, analyzing, and interpreting their results. He also managed new product implementation in the EMEA market.

Melanie Milan: Worked as a researcher at Harvard University in the Department of Pediatric and Fetal Surgery and was recently accepted as a researcher at Duke University in the Department of Surgical Oncology.

Karen Abi Chibli: Currently doing her neurology residency at Brown University.

Karl Atallah: Currently doing his internal medicine residency at Roger Williams Medical Center.

Ralph Zeitoun: Currently doing his internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins.

Elie Ghabi: Currently doing his residency in Surgical Oncology, Trauma/ACS at Johns Hopkins.

Faculty Promotion

• - Dr. Jessica Saliba promoted to the rank of Associate Professor
• 
  
• - Dr. Charbel Baysari promoted to the rank of Associate Professor