Pakistani physician gets $4m to lead research on heart transplantation

Islamabad: Currently a faculty member at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Heart Institute in Houston, Pakistani physician-scientist Dr Faisal H Cheema and his colleague Dr Jeffrey A. Morgan have been awarded $4 million in funding from Brockman Medical Research Foundation to lead cutting-edge research on heart transplantation.

Dr Cheema’s mission is to make heart and lung transplant and artificial devices for end-stage heart failure and lung disease a reality in Pakistan. He also aspires to develop a national organ donation and allocation system for Pakistan. He plans to achieve these objectives in due course of time, through strategic partnerships among academic, corporate, governmental and philanthropic institutions.

Belonging to the rural areas of Wazirabad and Hafizabad, Dr Cheema got his education from Crescent Model School and Government College, Lahore, before moving to Karachi to attend his medical school at Aga Khan University. After graduation, he moved to the United States and further trained and worked at Columbia University, Loyola University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland and University of California Berkley.

Dr Cheema has served as Senator for the Ivy-League Columbia University and is involved with several professional, academic, community and philanthropic organisations.

His passionate work for young physicians culminated in the establishment of the Committee for Young Physicians within the Association of Physicians of Pakistani-descent of North America (APPNA), on which he served for more than a decade; he also chaired APPNA.

Dr Cheema has helped hundreds of students in their search for residencies and or advancing their medical careers in the US. He loves to mentor medical students and young physicians. Ever since he left his motherland, he continues to collaborate with various institutions in Pakistan (Aga Khan University, Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS), Shifa College of Medicine and others) and guides students from medical schools all across Pakistan. Dr Cheema has published more than 110 scientific manuscripts in high impact journals.

Originally published in The News