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MD, PhD, FESC, FACC, Hon. FASE
Fadi Bitar, MD, PhD, FESC, FACC, Hon. FASE is a distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, and Professor of Biochemistry at the American University of Beirut (AUB). He holds several key leadership positions, including Director of the Children's Heart Center and Co-Director of the Congenital Heart Disease Genetics Program at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC). He also serves as the Associate Dean for External Medical Affairs at AUB.
Dr. Bitar is the Founding Director of the Children's Heart Center (CHC) at AUBMC, established in 1995, and the founder of the Children's Cardiac Registry Center in Lebanon. He is also the Co-Founder of the Brave Heart Fund, a charitable organization supporting children with congenital heart disease.
He has held the position of Ex-Associate Dean for External Medical Affairs at AUB and is the Ex-President of the Pan Arab Congenital Heart Disease Association and the current President of the Beirut Global Foundation for CHD.
Dr. Bitar is internationally recognized as a leading pediatric cardiologist in Lebanon, the region, and globally. The AD Scientific Index 2022 ranked him as the top scientist in Lebanon, second in Asia, and seventeenth worldwide in the field of Pediatric Cardiology.
His major contributions include the successful establishment of educational and clinical programs that have significantly improved the care of children with congenital heart disease. He has introduced innovative modalities and techniques for treating heart diseases, including procedures performed for the first time globally. Dr. Bitar has also made significant discoveries regarding the genetic causes of CHD.
He has published over 200 articles, book chapters, and abstracts and has been awarded more than 30 national and international research grants. Dr. Bitar is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Paul Harris Fellow recognition from Rotary International and the Humanitarian Recognition Award by Rotary International Clubs and Gift of Life Project in the USA. He also received the honorary title "Name in Science" and the medal "For Contribution to World Science" from the Academic Union of Oxford and the Club of Rectors of Europe.
His clinical focus lies in Interventional Pediatric Cardiology and Echocardiography, and his research interests include the study of factors contributing to successful CHD programs in developing countries, the genetics and molecular basis of CHD, and the development of an animal model for chronic hypoxia mimicking cyanotic CHD.