Dr. Ellahham is currently Cleveland Clinic Caregiver, Cleveland, US seconded as Senior
Cardiovascular Consultant and Quality Advisor in Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.
Dr. Ellahham received his undergraduate degree in biology and his M.D. from the
American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon. Dr Ellahham finished his internal
medicine residency in Georgetown University Hospital – Washington Hospital Center and his fellowship in Cardiology at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System in USA.
Dr. Ellahham worked in Washington DC in Georgetown University Hospital – Washington Hospital Center and in several clinical and leadership positions before moving to UAE in 2008. Dr. Ellahham continues to be an active clinician. He demonstrates great skill and experience in the management of patients with heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and valvular heart disease and led a multi-disciplinary team in the care and delivery of advanced therapies to these patients. He has unique abilities to partner and engage local and regional referring providers. He is able to work in a highly matrixed environment, possess strong leadership and organizational skills and have experience to working effectively in a large health system. He led the First AHA GWTG Heart Failure Initiative outside US and was the recipient of the AHA GWTG Award in Wash. DC. He is the champion of the AHA GWTG in the region.
Dr. Ellahham has served as Chief Quality Officer for SKMC from 2009 till 2017. In his role, he has led the development of a quality and safety program that has been highly successful and visible and has been recognized internationally by a number of awards. As Chief Quality Officer and Global Healthcare Leader, he had a focus on ensuring that implementation of these best practices leads to breakthrough improvements in clinical quality, patient safety, patient experience and risk management.
Dr. Ellahham was the Executive SKMC sponsor of the American College of Surgeons
National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP ® ) the leading US validated, risk-adjusted, outcomes-based program to measure and improve the quality of surgical care. SKMC is the first multispecialty ACS NSQIP center outside the US. He led the publication of, first in the region, annual SKMC outcome books since 2011and is a strong believer in transparency in health care and external reporting. He was the Leader of the First Pilot International Robust Process Improvement (RPI) project by the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare and several other similar successful performance improvement projects at SKMC.
Dr. Ellahham is American Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease,
Vascular Medicine, and American Board of Medical Quality. He was recently recertified in 2017 by the American Board of Cardiology (ABIM). He is Certified Professional in
Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) by The National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ),
certified in Medical Quality (CMQ) by The American Board of Medical Quality (ABMQ),
certified as EFQM Model assessor and Lead Trainer in TeamSTEPPS.
Dr. Ellahham is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American Heart
Association, American College of Chest Physicians, American College of Physicians and
American College of Medical Quality. He is a fellow of the American College of
Cardiology and key member in Heart Failure and Transplant, Adult Congenital and
Pediatric Cardiology, Cardio-oncology, Innovation, Quality and Peripheral Vascular
Disease Sections. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the New Westminster College in British
Columbia, Canada and Advisory Board Member, University of Wollongong in Dubai.
Dr. Ellahham is Middle East Representative of the JCI Standards Subcommittee and Member on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. He is reviewer of HCAC Cardiac Quality and Safety Standards.
Dr. Ellahham has been a champion of the use of Lean, Six Sigma and Change Management to improve healthcare quality. He is Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt Certified. He is an American Society of Quality (ASQ) trainer in Lean and Six Sigma both green and black belt.
Dr. Ellahham is a recognized innovative leader in quality, safety, patient experience, risk
management, clinical cardiology, telemedicine and the use of robust performance
improvement in improving healthcare delivery.
He serves on several US and international committees and advisory bodies. He is the Middle East Regional Chair of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation.
He received several research awards including the DuPont Pharmaceuticals Research Award, ACCP 58 th Annual Scientific Assembly, Young Investigator Award; the Alfred Soffer Research Award, ACCP 58 th Annual Scientific Assembly, Finalist; the First Young Investigator Award 12 th , Annual Meeting of the Mediterranean Association of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, American Heart Association Get with the Guidelines Award, SKMC Infection Prevention Award in 2011 and 2012, Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award in 2014, Quality Leadership Award from the World Quality Congress and Awards, Business Leadership Excellence Award from World Leadership Congress in 2015, one the nominees for Safe Care magazine Person of the Year in the United States, Dubai Quality Award in 2015 and Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Golden Award in 2015.
Dr. Ellahham is an avid researcher; his research includes heart failure, acute coronary
syndromes, frailty, dyslipidemia, accreditation, second victim phenomenon, resilience,
innovation, artificial intelligence, telehealth, block chain, patient flow, patient experience and engagement, lean-six sigma, patient safety, bowtie risk management tool and KPI
management. He is a recognized world-leader in these fields.
He is the Eminent Editor of The Journal of Cardiology & Cardiovascular Therapy. In addition, he serves on the editorial board of American Journal of Medical Quality,
Developments in Clinical & Medical Pathology (DCMP), the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, Telehealth and Medicine Today (TMT), Blockchain journal (BHTY), Medical Science, Open Journal of Cardiatic Research, UPI Journal of Pharmaceutical, Medical and Health Sciences (UPI-JPMHS, Open Access Research in Anatomy, Gerontology & Geriatrics studies and Open Access Journal of Clinical Trials, Hypertension Today Journal and Focus on Hypertension Journal, Journal of Heart Health, Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Scientific Research and Community, Journal of Surgery and Surgical Procedures and EC Cardiology.
He is also a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals, including Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, the Journal of American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, Archives of Internal Medicine, Chest, Circulation, Clinical Cardiology, Chest, Lancet ,Diabetes Care, Archives of Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism, European Journal of Heart Failure, Congestive Heart Failure Journal, Journal of Nuclear Cardiology, the Journal of Transplant Coordination, the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and the Southern Medical Journal, European Journal of Innovation Management and The Anatolian Journal of cardiology.
Dr. Ellahham is passionate about innovation, teaching, future health and healthy lifestyle.
