Meet Our Staff - Assaad Sayah, MD: Cambridge Health Alliance

Meet our Staff - Assaad Sayah, MD

Dr. Sayah is Chief of Emergency Medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance. Since joining CHA in 2006, he has led tremendous advancements in the emergency departments at all three of CHA's hospital campuses (Cambridge, Somerville, and Whidden), resulting in enhanced efficiency, quality, volume, and patient satisfaction. The implementation of Rapid Assessment, the electronic patient tracking system, and the addition of patient partners are among the many new initiatives that have contributed to improved patient flow.

The National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (NAPH) recently publicized successful ED strategies from top performing safety net hospitals throughout the country and honored CHA as a "high performer" candidate. After data was collected from two dozen member hospitals across the country, CHA was identified as having promising practices to share with the rest of the NAPH member hospitals and the greater hospital community. Since then, Dr. Sayah has been invited to share these strategies and accomplishments at national NAPH/UHC venues in Chicago, Denver, and San Diego.

Dr. Sayah serves as Chairman of CHA's Chiefs Council, CHA's Medical Staff President, and is on the faculty at both Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. His research and publications focus on Emergency Department Operation, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) including design of the EMS system, continuous quality improvement, advanced directives, violence and weapons, disaster planning, and pre-hospital thrombolytics.

He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Presidents Award and Vanguard Award from the Massachusetts College of Emergency Physicians, the America's Top Physicians distinction in 2007 and 2008 from the Consumers Research Council of America, and the EMS Physician of the Year Award from the Metropolitan Boston EMS Council.

Prior to coming to Cambridge Health Alliance, Dr. Sayah served in many leadership roles in area hospitals, including as Director of EMS for Brigham and Women's Hospital, Associate Chief for the Department of Emergency Medicine at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, and Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center. He received his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and completed his residency in emergency medicine at William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan.