Sohaila Cheema, MBBS, MPH, CPH, Dip IBLM
Sohaila Cheema, MBBS, MPH, CPH, Dip IBLM is the Assistant Dean for the Institute for Population Health (IPH) and Associate Professor of Clinical Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar (WCM-Q). She actively participates in oversight and implementation of IPH education, research, and community programs. Dr. Cheema co-directs and teaches the pre-medical course, Health and Disease: A Global Perspective. Additionally, she teaches senior medical students in the Health Care and Public Health Clerkship for which she also serves as the Associate Director. Furthermore, she presents seminars to community medicine residents at Hamad Medical Corporation on topics of public health interest.
Dr. Cheema is actively engaged in developing, implementing and evaluating continuous professional development/continuous medical education activities for building capacity in healthcare professionals. She is also co-founder of the Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group-Middle East, which aims to support and cultivate a community of dedicated professionals who strive to promote healthy behaviors and lifestyles. Additionally, she collaborates with private and government institutions on programmatic activities aimed at promoting health awareness, disease prevention and self-care in the State of Qatar. Moreover, she serves on or has served on many Qatari government/medical school committees.
She is WCM-Q’s Manager for the Global Educational Exchange in Medicine and the Health Professions (GEMx) program, administered by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), USA. She supervises the Global Health Education and Research Program, which provides unique experiential learning and research opportunities to WCM-Q medical students at Weill Bugando School of Medicine in Tanzania. She also co-directs and supervises the Global Health Service Learning Program in which premedical students get an opportunity to explore healthcare in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Dr. Cheema’s research interests are multidisciplinary with an emphasis on the non-communicable disease paradigm and lifestyle medicine. She has published several research articles in peer-reviewed journals, notably on topics related to diabetes, waterpipe smoking, migrant health, oral health, road traffic injury prevention and complementary medicine.
Dr. Cheema received her medical degree from Dow Medical College, Pakistan and completed her Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Arizona, USA. She received her Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA and is Certified in Public Health by the National Board of Public Health Examiners, USA. She is a diplomate of the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine and is a certified lifestyle medicine physician.