Raed Dweik, MD, MBA, Appointed Chair of the Respiratory Institute

Cleveland Clinic has appointed Raed Dweik, MD, MBA, as Chairman of the Respiratory Institute. In his new role, Dr. Dweik will lead the more than 650 caregivers in Cleveland Clinic’s departments of Pulmonary Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Infectious Disease, and Allergy & Clinical Immunology, as well as the institute’s clinical, research and educational efforts.

“I am as excited about assuming this role as I am humbled to follow in the footsteps of Herbert P. Wiedemann, MD, MBA, who masterfully led the institute for more than a decade,” says Dr. Dweik. “We are doing amazing things in respiratory medicine at Cleveland Clinic — mainly driven by the fact that we are highly subspecialized and have many high-functioning teams in all important disease areas.”

Dr. Dweik served as the institute’s Interim Chair since March 2018, when Dr. Wiedemann was appointed Cleveland Clinic’s Chief of Staff.

Dr. Dweik at a glance

Overview: Joined Cleveland Clinic in 1996. Chair of Innovation Management and Conflict of Interest office since 2014. Director of Pulmonary Vascular Program since 2005; credited with transforming it from a two-physician program to one of the largest programs in the nation. Professor of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Joint appointment in Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute. Continuous funding from National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 2002. Acclaimed for pioneering work in exhaled breath analysis in lung and systemic disease. More than 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters.

Education: MD, University of Jordan, 1988; residency in internal medicine, Wright State University, 1993; fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine, Cleveland Clinic, 1996; MBA, Case Western Reserve University, 2017

Clinical interests: pulmonary disease, pulmonary hypertension, asthma, chronic beryllium disease, critical care

In his own words

1. What is your plan for the Respiratory Institute? My plan is simple, but not easy. I want our institute to be fully integrated as one entity, so we can provide the best quality, safety and patient experience at all of our locations. The key to this plan is our people, our most valuable asset. I would like to empower every member of the Respiratory Institute to put our patients first and make us the best place to work, the best place to learn and the best place to innovate. Integrating our core missions of clinical care, research and education along with innovation will allow us to provide the best care not only for the patient of today, but also the patient of tomorrow.
2. Will you personally continue to provide patient care? Absolutely! Taking care of patients has always been and will always be my top priority. It is the main reason I came to Cleveland Clinic and the main reason I have stayed all these years. I will continue to take care of my clinic patients with a focus on pulmonary hypertension and beryllium-induced lung disease. I also will continue to attend in the Medical Intensive Care Unit.
3. Why did you choose to specialize in pulmonary medicine? Since my days in medical school, I have been fascinated by pulmonary physiology. When I came from Jordan to the United States in 1990, I enjoyed the challenge of taking care of critically ill patients. This specialty has allowed me to incorporate both of those interests.
4. What areas of pulmonary care are you most enthused about? Innovation. We are actively leveraging many innovations in other fields, from 3D printing to robotics to artificial intelligence to simulation. These are just a few of the disciplines that will have a major impact on how we take care of our patients.
5. What are your thoughts about today’s healthcare environment? There is a lot of uncertainty and increasingly limited support for what we do. These are major challenges, but they also represent huge opportunities for us to lead.