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Sonia Nimtz is a Nurse Practitioner in General Cardiology. She graduated from UTMB with a bachelor's degree in nursing and then worked as an RN in Cardiology. She later went on to obtain certification as a Family Nurse Practitioner from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners after graduating from UTMB with a master's degree in Nursing. Sonia is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society, as well as a member of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. She has a passion for cardiology – working with patients to help them achieve maximum cardiovascular health through positive health behaviors and knowledge of their medications and disease process. She loves to garden, cook, and bake. She and her husband love to travel and enjoy spending time with family.

I believe in working together with each patient and their family to provide the best possible outcome and experience. My goal is to bring together world-class care with leading-edge technology and innovation.

Dr. Bashar Al hemyari is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Division of Cardiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Dr. Al hemyari obtained his MD from the University of Baghdad College of Medicine. He then worked on Clinical Research at David Geffen School of Medicine at UC Los Angeles to help optimize care for patients with cardiovascular and kidney disease.

Dr. Al hemyari completed his Internal Medicine Residency at the UC Riverside/RCH and was awarded as the Best Clinical Resident & Best Overall Resident. He had a great interest in the field of Cardiology and pursued fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Al hemyari joined the Cardiology Department at UTMB in September of 2022.

Dr. Al hemyari is a general cardiologist with a special interest in preventive cardiology, cardiac disease in women, coronary artery disease, heart failure, arrhythmias, and cardiac CT imaging. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac Echocardiography. Dr. Al hemyari provides care for patients at UTMB Galveston, League City campus and Clear Lake campus.

Dr. Abu Sharifeh is a Cardiologist who specializes in clinical and Invasive cardiology. He serves as the Section Director for Clinical Cardiology & is the Medical Director for Ambulatory Cardiac Care at UTMB where he also serves as an Assistant Professor and the Mary Wheat-endowed professor in Cardiology.

He finished his medical degree at the University of Jordan, where he graduated with honors, his Internal Medicine training at the University of Texas Medical Branch, and his Clinical Cardiology training at the Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and vascular center / University of Texas Medical Branch. He is Board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, National Board of echocardiography, Certification Board of Nuclear Cardiology and Certification Board of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.

Dr. Abu Sharifeh’s interests include medical student, resident, and cardiology fellow education as well as patient care. He is an honorary member of the Texas Chapter of the Alpha Omega Alpha Society, and is the recipient of multiple awards, including and on multiple occasions the Jose Esquival Avila Best Teaching Award and William E. McCarron Award for Highest Performance and Professionalism in Medicine. His clinical interests include cardiovascular prevention, multi-modality cardiac imaging, coronary artery disease, and valvular heart disease.

Dr. Abu Sharifeh is a Fellow of American College of Cardiology, the American Society of Echocardiography, and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology.

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Dr. Raja is a clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at UTMB Division of Cardiology. He completed his medical residency training from Texas Tech University and Cardiology Fellowship from Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA. He joined UTMB Division of Cardiology for his sheer interest in academic medicine and teaching.

His clinical interests include preventive cardiology, non-invasive cardiac imaging, general cardiology, invasive cardiology and medical education. He is actively involved in teaching and training Cardiology fellows and residents during inpatient services at UTMB Jennie Sealy Hospital and TDCJ. His philosophy of treating patients is to treat them like his family with great compassion and respect. He focuses to provide best, affordable and evidence-based care.

Dr. Albaeni graduated from Damascus University School of Medicine . After moving to USA, he completed his internal medicine residency at St Barnabas hospital/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York 2011. He began his academic career as an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University/Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Thereafter, Dr. Albaeni pursued fellowship training in advanced heart failure and transplant at UTMB 2017-2018. He continued his academic career as an associate program director and associate professor of medicine at Ocal Regional Hospital/University of Central Florida. Dr Albaeni completed cardiovascular disease fellowship at UTMB from 2019-2022. After fellowship graduation he joined UTMB as an assistant professor in invasive cardiology.

His professional interests include clinical cardiology, clinical cardiovascular research and medical education. He is board certified in Echocardiography, Nuclear Cardiology, and Internal Medicine. 

Dr. Shalaby graduated with honors from the University of Cairo, Egypt. After moving to USA, he completed his Residency in Internal Medicine from the University of Miami Regional Campus in 2012. He began his academic career as an assistant professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he also received an award for Teaching Excellence. Thereafter, Dr. Shalaby pursued fellowship training in Cardiovascular Diseases at UTMB from 2015-2018. After fellowship graduation he joined UTMB as an Assistant Professor in Invasive Cardiology.

His professional interests include cardiac imaging, clinical cardiology, congenital heart diseases and medical education. He is board certified in Echocardiography, Nuclear Cardiology, and Internal Medicine. Dr. Shalaby sees patients at the UTMB Primary & Specialty Care Clinic in Texas City and at the UTMB Clear Lake Campus Clinic Building in Webster, TX.

Dr. Prasad is working as a clinical cardiologist for UTMB. He is currently focused on developing cardiology practice in Angleton, TX area.

Dr. Prasad is strongly inclined towards preventive cardiology and thus guides his patients and their families to lead a healthy lifestyle. He believes in risk factor modification by providing patient centered comprehensive cardiovascular treatment options and focused education.

Dr. Prasad graduated from both Internal Medicine & Cardiology fellowship programs from Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital, Sayre, PA. During his training, he was awarded with “Resident of the year 2010” and “Teaching cardiology fellow of the year” continuously all three years in a row (2012 to 2015).

Dr. Amer Abdulla is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at UTMB. He obtained a bachelor of science with honors in bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a master of science in translational medicine from the joint UC Berkeley – UCSF bioengineering department. He developed an interest in the use of technology to optimize healthcare. During his master program, he cofounded Gauss Surgical and helped develop the Triton, a device that improves the accuracy of intraoperative blood loss using computer vision.

Although his experiences in engineering were deeply rewarding, he wanted a career with the human interaction that medicine affords. Dr. Abdulla received his MD from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Abdulla then completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He was drawn to the field of cardiology because of its fascinating physiology and its many evidence-based therapies that save lives and improve quality of life. He pursued fellowship in cardiovascular disease at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.

Dr. Abdulla is a general cardiologist with a special interest in multimodality imaging, preventive cardiology, invasive cardiology, medical education, and quality improvement. He is board certified in Echocardiography, Nuclear Cardiology, and Internal Medicine. He has authored and coauthored several manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and presented at many conferences on the topics of cardiac imaging, preventive cardiology, and quality improvement in healthcare.

Dr. Abdulla enjoys educating his patients about their disease so they can make well-informed decisions about their health. He is a strong advocate for prevention and a healthy lifestyle. He finds deep satisfaction in helping his patients achieve better quality of life. Dr. Abdulla sees patients at the UTMB Clear Lake Campus. He is fluent in Arabic. In his free time, Dr. Abdulla enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, cooking, running, swimming, hiking, and traveling.