PhD Alumnus selected as Fulbright Scholar

Al-Zaiti, an associate professor and vice chair of research at University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, has focused his academic career on the biomedical modeling and phenotyping of physiological signals in patients with coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, heart failure and cardiomyopathy. He has received nearly $8 million in funding through the National Institutes of Health (National Institute of Nursing Research and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute).

Al-Zaiti currently leads two trials at UPMC that focus on developing and deploying machine-learning-based clinical decision support tools to triage patients with chest pain at the emergency department and building and deploying an intelligent alerting system to predict hemodynamic instability in step-down units in real-time, including designing and testing a clinician-facing graphical user interface.

Academically, Al-Zaiti has nearly 100 scholarly publications in peer-reviewed journals and 50 scientific presentations. He also helped develop the 2020 AHA guidelines for preventing and mitigating the risk of exercise-related adverse cardiac events.

Al-Zaiti has been recognized numerous times for his research through national, international, regional and university level awards. In 2023, he received the University of Pittsburgh’s Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award – a university-wide highest research honor. In 2020, he received a U.S. Patent (# 10820822) – Electrocardiographic identification of non-ST elevation ischemic events.

Al-Zaiti holds leadership roles at various national and international societies, including ISCE Board of Directors and the AHA Research Mentoring Committee. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards at Journal of Electrocardiology, Heart & Lung, and the American Journal of Critical Care. Al-Zaiti has been heavily involved in mentoring pre and postdoctoral trainees, supervising the thesis and dissertation of more than 10 scholars.

While at UB, Al-Zaiti was a recipient of the Nova G. and Gustave S. Petsan Scholarship, the Ruth Gale Elder Award for Excellence in Nursing, the Anne Walker Sengbusch Award for Leadership and a Presidential Fellowship. 

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers over 400 awards in more than 135 countries for U.S. citizens to teach, conduct research and carry out professional projects around the world. College and university faculty, as well as artists and professionals from a wide range of fields can join over 400,000 Fulbrighters who have come away with enhanced skills, new connections, and greater mutual understanding.

Sources: University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program