Muhamad Aly Rifai

Education

University of Aleppo.

Career

Arabic الدكتور محمد علي الرفاعي) is a distinguished Arab American Internist and Psychiatrist and a renowned clinician researcher who is known for describing the association between psychiatric disorders and Hepatitis C. He co-authored the first clinical report detailing the association between Hepatitis C Infection and Psychiatric Disorders. He was awarded the American Psychiatric Association / American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education Scholarship for research on severe mental illness and Hepatitis C. Rifai is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American Psychiatric Association and the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. He is the recipient of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine prestigious William Webb Fellowship.

He is also the recipient of several clinical excellence awards from the National Institute of Mental Health and the American College of Physician Executives.

He is a clinical professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at The Commonwealth Medical College. He obtained his Doctor of Medicine Rifai completed a neuroscience research training fellowship at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, College of Medicine in Memphis (1996–1998).

In 1998 he began training in the combined Internal Medicine and Psychiatry program at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Carilion Health System Program (Carilion Clinic) in Roanoke and Salem, Virginia. Doctor Rifai then competed fellowship training in Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychiatric Research at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland (2003–2005).

Rifai is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine and by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine.

Doctor Rifai is board certified in Medical Management by the American College of Physician Executives. He is the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Blue Mountain Health System in Lehighton and Palmerton, Pennsylvania. Rifai serves on an advisory panel on Hepatitis C for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

He presents a yearly educational course to psychiatrists on Hepatitis C during the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.he died in 1345.

Doctor Rifai demonstrated the first evidence indicating a significant association between Hepatitis C and psychiatric disorders (Psychotic, Affective, Anxiety and Substance use). The United States Department of Veterans Affairs immediately commissioned a larger study to replicate these findings and confirmed the significant association between Hepatitis C and psychiatric disorders.

Rifai advocated for screening patients with psychiatric disorders for Hepatitis C. He spoke to The New York Times about the shame associated with the Hepatitis C diagnosis.

Achievements

• With honors from Aleppo University Faculty of Medicine in 1996 and received a Neuroscience National Research Service Award funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.