Who We Are
We are a multidisciplinary team of volunteer doctors and academics from the United States who collaborate with international NGOs such as the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), to provide medical relief to refugees and vulnerable host communities. Our goal is to deliver compassionate and dignified care centered on health, education, and prevention.
Our team felt helpless in the face of the massive devastation brought upon by the war in Syria, the significant human toll and unspeakable suffering, and the effects of the protracted refugee crisis on Syrians and host communities. We sought to collaborate with a global relief organization to create a medical mission, in order to work on the ground and serve the underserved refugee and host populations in Lebanon.
The doctors on the team are specialized in emergency medicine, internal medicine, cardiology, and pediatrics. They practice in different academic and community centers in New York, Colorado and Texas.
Our goal in creating this platform is to share our experiences, advocate for refugees and vulnerable populations, encourage other healthcare professionals to get involved, and recruit interested members for future missions.
Our Team of Doctors
(Listed by last name in alphabetical order)
Josyann Abisaab, M.D.
is an emergency medicine physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine and a fellow at the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights
Haedar Abuirqeba, Ph.D.
is a molecular biologist and laboratory manager in the Department of Radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine and the City University of New York
Rana Biary, M.D.
is an emergency medicine physician and toxicologist at New York University Langone Health
Sasha Fahme, M.D.
is an internal medicine physician and global health researcher at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine
is a pediatric emergency medicine physician at New York University Langone Health
Mostafa Minawi, Ph.D.
is a professor of Middle Eastern History and the director of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Initiative at Cornell University
Laura Papadimitropoulos, M.D.
is a pediatric emergency medicine physician at New York University Langone Health
Altaf Pirmohamed, M.D.
is an internal medicine physician and cardiology fellow at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine
Martin Pusic, M.D., Ph.D.
is a pediatric emergency medicine physician and a researcher at the Institute for Innovations in Medical Education at New York University Langone Health
is an emergency medicine and critical care physician at Houston Methodist Hospital
is an emergency medicine physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center
is a consultant in internal medicine and an entrepreneur in the medical device space
is an emergency medicine physician and a fellow in Climate in Health Science Policy at the University of Colorado
Christian Wilson, M.D.
is an internal medicine physician at Apogee Physicians
Tarek Zetoune, M.D.
is a hospice physician at Northwell and the president of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) tri-state chapter