CV Fadi Bitar 2020 BIOGRAPHY OF FADI BITAR, MD - A SUMMARY Dr. Fadi Bitar is the Founding Director of the Children’s Heart Center, the Founding Chief of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology, the Founding Co-Director of the Congenital Heart Disease Genetic Research Program (CHDGRP), and the Executive Director for External Medical Affairs at the American University of Beirut (AUB). He is a Professor of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. Dr. Bitar is the Past President of the Pan Arab Congenital Heart Disease Association. He earned his medical degree from the American University of Beirut and completed his training in Pediatrics and Pediatric Cardiology at the State University of New York, Health Science Center at Syracuse. He also completed specialized training at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Bitar is the Co-Founder of the Brave Heart Fund, a charitable fundraising initiative established to provide financial and humanitarian assistance to needy children suffering from Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) with fund raising amounting to about $20 million. Dr. Bitar leads a humanitarian team that has provided treatment for about 4.000 underprivileged children with CHD, since the inception of the fund in 2003. Dr. Bitar established the Children's Heart Center (CHC) at the American University of Beirut. The CHC consists of a multidisciplinary team, of more than fifty physicians and health care providers, who delivers state of the art care to children with CHD and provides excellence in education and innovation in research, in addition to its philanthropic mission to support those in need. The CHC is a world class center with outcome measures comparable to the benchmarks of the best centers in the world and is a beacon of hope for the children of Lebanon and the region. In 2017, the CHC team performed the first pediatric heart transplant in Lebanon and the Levant area, a landmark in the history of AUBMC and the country. Dr. Bitar earns worldwide recognition as one of the leading Pediatric Cardiologists in Lebanon, the region and beyond, and has major contributions which include the introduction of new interventional cardiac catheterization procedures to Lebanon and the region, as well as the successful establishment of clinical programs resulting in improvements towards the care of thousands of children with CHD. Dr. Bitar introduced new modalities and novel techniques for medical and catheter treatment of heart disease and performed first of their kind procedures in the world. Dr. Bitar established the first Pediatric Cardiac Registry Center in Lebanon and studied the epidemiology of CHD in developing countries and reported the role of consanguinity in patients with CHD. He is considered as one of the leading researchers in the field of Pediatric Cardiology in the region. He published data regarding Rheumatic Fever and Bacterial Endocarditis in developing countries (one of the largest pediatric series in the world). He was the first in the world to report the use of IVQQ in the treatment of children with Rheumatic Fever. Dr. Bitar described the association of transient hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in the 1 CV Fadi Bitar 2020 newborn following multiple doses of antenatal corticosteroids. He reported outcomes of various surgical and interventional procedures in limited resource countries and addressed the elements of success that contribute towards the establishment of high caliber services in the field of Pediatric Cardiology in developing countries. Dr. Bitar and team were awarded the Farouk Jaber interfaculty grant to co-lead the first 3D printing program for complex CHD lesions in Lebanon and the region and developed research tools to introduce 3D printing of cardiac valves utilizing echocardiographic images, which have contributed to the betterment of the treatment of children with CHD. Dr. Bitar co-established and co-directed with Dr. Georges Nemer, a pioneering Congenital Heart Disease Genetic Research Program at AUBMC with a data bank including genetic and epidemiological information of 2,000 patients. He reported and co-led initiatives with pioneering discoveries. In collaboration with Dr. Nemer, he reported worldwide discoveries regarding the genetic causes of CHD. He provided new insights into the developmental biology of Congenital Heart Disease and described novel genetic causes in cases of cardiomyopathies. Dr. Bitar co-led teams that studied several cardiovascular diseases in Lebanon and contributed to improving the understanding of the genotype and phenotype of Familial Hypercholesterolemia. These discoveries contributed towards improvements in the care of children with cardiac diseases and are considered key milestones for the country and beyond. Dr. Bitar worked on developing and evolving an animal model of chronic hypoxia mimicking Cyanotic Congenital Heart Disease to study the effect of chronic hypoxia on the myocardium, endocrine and central nervous systems. He contributed to design an intelligent hypoxia chamber controller for in vivo and in vitro biomedical experimentation. This advanced hypoxic chamber was utilized to conduct experiments on clinical conditions with chronic hypoxia (cyanotic heart disease, chronic lung disease and others). In collaboration with Dr. G. Dbaibo, he established a specialized team to study the adaptive molecular mechanisms of the hypoxic myocardium in relation to apoptosis, sphingolipid pathways, signaling and transcription factors. As the essence of success is collaboration, Dr. Bitar established partnerships and networks at the national, regional, and international levels that played a pivotal role in creating a research model for CHD in the region. He established international networking with the laboratory of Drs. Seidman at Harvard Medical School, which led to the advancement of research at the CHD Genetic Research Program at AUBMC. Dr. Bitar established a CHD research program that is considered the prototype to follow in developing countries and which was presented in several regional and international meetings and described the top ten pearls in establishing such research program in developing countries. Dr. Bitar has been the recipient of more than 30 national and international research grants, including the Dubai-Harvard Foundation Research Grant, in collaboration with Dr. Nemer, and the Farouk Jaber interfaculty grant. He received intramural and extramural research funding amounting to about $2 million. Dr. Bitar published more than 190 peer review articles, abstracts, posters, and book chapters with his entire research being “Made in AUB”, despite his busy clinical, admisntrative and service responsibilities. Dr. Bitar is the recipient of multiple appreciation awards by: the AUB Medical Alumni in Jordan; the Lebanese International University; the Egyptian Working Group of Pediatric 2 CV Fadi Bitar 2020 Cardiology and League of the Egyptian Society of Cardiology; the King Faisal Heart Institute; the National Evangelical School in Lebanon; the Lebanese Community in Toledo, Ohio/USA; the Pediatric Jordanian Society, in addition to a special award from the former First Lady of the Republic for his service towards children in Lebanon. Dr. Bitar is the recipient of the "Distinguished Golden Shield of Excellence" for his outstanding humanitarian contributions in the medical field, by the Arab Women's Council in 2016. He is the recipient of the Paul Harris distinguished model for his outstanding contributions to the community and the Humanitarian Recognition Award for “Service Above Self”, presented by “Rotary International Clubs and Gift of Life Project” in USA. In 2017, Dr. Bitar was awarded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Embassy in Lebanon a Shield of Excellence and Token of Appreciation for his innovative and creative contributions in the medical sector. In 2018 he was the recipient of The First Lebanese Pediatric Society Award, as a Token of Gratitude and Appreciation for his lifetime achievements. In December 2018, Dr. Bitar received the prestigious “The Name in Science” award and the medal ‘For Contribution to World Science’, presented by Academic Union of Oxford (AU) in Oxford, with the assistance of the Club of Rectors of Europe (CRE). This award is given to the most respected personalities in the fields of science, technology, and innovations. Dr. Bitar is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society; Member to the America’s Registry of Top Physicians and Outstanding Professionals; Adviser for the World Health Organization; Invited International Expert for “The Global Forum on Humanitarian Medicine” in Geneva and Recipient of the America’s Top Physicians Award. Dr. Bitar is the current Executive Director and the former Associate Dean of the External Medical Affairs Office at AUBMC and a member of the leadership team at AUBMC. He has overseen, spearheaded, and coordinated more than 100 agreements between the AUBMC/FM and national, regional, and international medical schools/organizations/universities in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Kuwait, Bahrain, Europe, and the United States. Dr. Bitar coordinated several educational and training workshops sponsored by MOH in Iraq, UNRWA, WHO, the industry and others Dr. Bitar founded the first and only Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Program at AUBMC and Lebanon which contributes to the training of physicians from all over Lebanon and the region. He co-advised more than 30 graduate students