Find a Doctor

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.

Dr. Sharifeh is a firm believer is preventive cardiology and risk factor control. As clinical research proved over the past many years preventing the disease has much better outcome for the community. Healthy diet, appropriate exercise, and weight loss are excellent start before pharmacologic management of risk.

Dr. Masood Ahmad received his medical degree from Kashmir Medical College in Kashmir, India. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Euclid General Hospital in Cleveland Ohio and at Long Island Jewish/Queens Hospital Center in New York. Dr. Ahmad completed his fellowship in cardiology at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and in cardiovascular disease. He is a Fellow of the Royal college of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Prior to coming to UTMB, Dr. Ahmad was a tenured Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri Medical Center and served as Director of Noninvasive Laboratories and Chief of the Cardiology Section at the Harry S. Truman VA Hospital in Columbia Missouri.

Dr. Ahmad is the Edward D. and Sally M. Futch Endowed Professor in Cardiology. He is also the Director of the Echocardiography Laboratory.

Dr. Ahmad's research interests are in noninvasive Cardiovascular imaging and he has expertise in 3D echocardiography. Dr Ahmad is a board member of the Houston Chapter of the American Society of Echocardiography. At the national level, Dr Ahmad serves on the FASE committee of the American Society of Echocardiography. In addition, Dr Ahmad serves on the editorial board of Echocardiography, a journal of Cardiovascular ultrasound and Allied techniques.

Dr. Almustafa is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at UTMB Division of Cardiology. Dr. Almustafa earned his medical degree from Arabian Gulf University at Manama, kingdom of Bahrain. He completed residency in internal medicine and clinical fellowship in cardiology at West Virginia University, as well as completed a fellowship in heart failure and transplant at University of Texas, Houston.

Dr. Almustafa has a special interest in device therapy for heart failure, hemodynamic monitoring, left ventricular device support, cardiac transplant, cardiomyopathies and pulmonary hypertension.

Dr. Alwash graduated from the University of Baghdad, College of Medicine. He completed Internal Medicine Residency in Atlanta, Georgia in 2015, and was also recognized and awarded as an Outstanding Resident. Thereafter, Dr. Alwash completed his fellowship training in cardiovascular medicine and interventional cardiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX.

Dr. Alwash joined UTMB faculty in 2019 as Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, and Interventional Cardiology. He is Board certified in internal medicine and Cardiology, as well as Adult Echocardiography and Nuclear medicine. His fields of interests are coronary and peripheral arterial disease, structural heart disease, and general cardiology.

Dr. Ashraf Aly is the director of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology and a professor in the Department of Pediatrics. He received his M.D. from Cairo University School of Medicine in Cairo, Egypt and completed his Pediatric residency at Penn State University, Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania and Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He received his Ph.D. in Genetics from the George Washington University in Washington DC.

Dr. Aly specializes in Pediatric Cardiology and sees patients with possible congenital heart diseases from the fetal life throughout adulthood.

Before joining UTMB in 2003, Dr. Aly was in private practice in Michigan.

Dr. Aly is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in both Pediatrics and Pediatric Cardiology. He is also a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and many other professional medical and scientific organizations.

Dr. Cai completed his residency in internal medicine at Geisinger Medical Center in Pennsylvania. Then he completed his fellowship in cardiology at UTMB and The Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center in Houston. Dr. Cai joined UTMB Angleton Danbury Campus as an Assistant Professor and medical director in 2014.

Dr. Cai's professional interests include cardiac imaging, clinical cardiology, medical education, and quality improvement in cardiac care. He is board certified in cardiovascular diseases, internal medicine, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, cardiac CT, and vascular ultrasound. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Cai has been involved in multiple clinical studies and research projects. He has published extensively and serves as a reviewer for a number of medical journals.

Dr. Cai serves cardiac and vascular patients including those with any established cardiovascular diseases. He also provides risk factor management and preoperative evaluation.

Dr. George Carayannopoulos was born and raised in Dallas, Texas and completed all of his academic and medical training in the University of Texas educational system. After completion of his Cardiac Electrophysiology training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, he was selected as one of six cardiologists to care for all of the international athletes and staff residing in the Olympic Village for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Upon the completion of the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, Dr. Carayannopoulos moved to Long Island, New York where he started Heart Rhythm Consultants of New York a practice created to address the cardiac electrophysiology needs of the community on Long Island.

During his time in New York he held the position of Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the State University of New York – Stony Brook University Hospital. He also served in several leadership positions including Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology at St. Catherine of Siena Hospital, Vice-chair of Suffolk County H.E.A.R.T. (a task force he created in conjunction with the Suffolk County Health Commissioner to raise the awareness of heart disease in the community), Co-Founder of Suffolk County Life Savers (support group for at risk patients and survivors of Sudden Cardiac Arrest), and Vice President of the New York Hellenic Medical Society.

He is actively involved in the Heart Rhythm Society and has served on its Reimbursement and Regulatory Committee for six years. He is an international speaker and gives many lectures annually on Sudden Cardiac Arrest, Syncope, Congestive Heart Failure, and Medical Practice Building. In June 2010 he received Greek America Magazine's 40 most influential young Greek-Americans award. Dr. Carayannopoulos and his wife are active members in the Greek Orthodox community, and they enjoy living on Galveston Island.

Dr Khaled Chatila completed his medical school at the prestigious American University of Beirut in Lebanon. He then joined as a post-doctoral research fellow in cardiovascular disease at Baylor College of Medicine where he performed cutting edge basic science research studying the pathogenesis of myocardial infarction in animals. He then joined the Good Samaritan Hospital a Johns Hopkins affiliate in Baltimore where he completed his residency training in internal medicine.

Dr Chatila then moved to Louisville Kentucky for his cardiology training and after completion of general cardiology he stayed on for an additional fellowship in advanced heart failure and transplant where he learned under the guidance of world renowned experts in the field about the care and management of patients with end stage heart failure, mechanical heart pumps (LVAD) and heart transplantation. He then joined UTMB division of cardiology. Along with him was his wife Dr Hania Kassem who also joined UTMB division of nephrology.

Dr Chatila is extremely passionate about teaching medical students, residents and Cardiology Fellows. He is also interested in multiple research topics and currently working on different research projects. Dr Chatila has been selected for three years in a row 2016-2018 by Super Doctors® as one of Texas rising stars physicians. Dr Chatila has two kids a son and daughter with whom he spends most of his free time.

Dr. Gilani specializes in cardiology and practices in the Clinical Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory.

Dr. Gilani earned his MBBS degree from Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan (1996). He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, IL. (2002) and a fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals (2008). Prior to coming to UTMB, Dr. Gilani completed a fellowship in Interventional Cardiology at the Ochsner Medical Center, New Orleans, LA.