Welcome to the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine website at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC). The history of the Department has been summarized recently and may be accessed in this website under “Historical Overview”. The tradition of excellence in the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine was established by our predecessors who, through their selfless commitment to patient care and teaching, left an indelible mark in the generations of pediatricians that followed. As current pediatricians, we take a lot of pride in being former students of these giants, but we also feel equally proud to be mentors to future generations of pediatricians.

The Department faculty currently comprises 24 full time and 4 part time pediatricians representing most of the pediatric subspecialties. In addition, there are 17 volunteer faculty members who provide their clinical expertise in teaching and precepting medical students in the outpatient department. We are continuing to expand and have plans to recruit highly qualified physicians for all the remaining disciplines. We have an excellent nursing service and as a testimony to that AUBMC was recently awarded the highly coveted Magnet designation, the first in the Middle East and only the third outside territorial USA.

As for the academic aspects of the Department, both undergraduate and post graduate teaching take place in outpatient and inpatient settings, with emphasis on self learning, but with close supervision by faculty members. The residency program is structured along ACGME requirements and our housestaff have performed extremely well on the mock exams of the American Board of Pediatrics. The Departmental activities are very popular with the medical students, residents, pediatricians and community physicians alike. These consist of weekly grand rounds, mortality/ morbidity, journal club and radiology conferences and Chairman’s round. Our grand rounds are video taped and are being uploaded on our website for viewing by interested physicians and will be available soon on compact disks.

From the service standpoint, the Department faculty oversees more than 43,000 outpatient visits annually, including approximately 10,000 patients seen through the Emergency Department and another 10,000 at St Jude’s Children Cancer Center. The faculty managed over 4,000 patients admitted to the various subspecialty services and general pediatrics in the past year. The standard of care delivered to these patients is up to par with the best medical centers in the west. We are proud of the existing centers of excellence in the Department including the Children’s Cancer Center, Children’s Heart Center and the Adult and Pediatric Epilepsy Program. A multidisciplinary Weight Control Program was established recently. Our vision is to expand on these and develop further programs including Primary Immune Deficiencies, End Stage Renal Disease and other programs.

Finally, in the research domain, ours is one of the most active among the clinical departments in terms of research funding and productivity with an output of over 60 original, high quality publications yearly. Combined with the superb clinical expertise of our faculty the outcome of these research efforts bode well for the children of Lebanon and the region.

Sami Sanjad, MD
Professor and Acting Chairman
Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine