Raghib Ali

OBE, MD, MPH, MsC, DLSHTM, FRCP, MA

Dr. Raghib Ali has been made an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2022 by HM Queen Elizabeth || for his services to the NHS and the COVID-19 response.

Dr. Raghib moved to the UAE from the University of Oxford in 2011 to try to understand why rates of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease were so high in the UAE through establishing a prospective cohort study of Emiratis, he became the Director of the NYU Abu Dhabi Public Health Research Center in 2013 whose mission is ‘to improve the health of the population of the UAE through research.’ The research being conducted by PHRC is the first of its kind in the UAE, and in many aspects, a first for the whole region and is helping to establish the UAE as a center of excellence for population health research in the region.

As the Principal Investigator, he started the UAE Healthy Future Study (UAEHFS) in 2014, the first prospective cohort study in the country, and brought together, for the first time, researchers from the leading universities and healthcare providers in the UAE to work on a single research study. He was instrumental in shaping the vision and design for the study and in overseeing its approval and implementation. HE is also responsible for developing the analysis plans for the data once recruitment is complete. Dr. Raghib and his team are also trying to build sustainable capacity for population health research – supporting the PHRC team in undertaking Masters and PhD programs. The UAEHFS will provide a unique national resource for existing students and faculty at universities in the UAE.

Institution Link: https://med.nyu.edu/