Boulenouar Mesraoua
Dr. Boulenouar Mesraoua is an associate professor of clinical neurology at Weill Cornell Medical College-Qatar and a consultant neurologist at Hamad Medical Corporation's Neuroscience Department. He graduated as a medical doctor from the University of Oran, Algeria. He then moved to Belgium, the City of Liege, for a residency in internal medicine and neurology at Liege University. After getting on the Belgian Board of Neurology (with high marks), he went to the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London, United Kingdom, for a fellowship in clinical neurophysiology under Pr. Willison. Dr. Mesraoua also had further training in epilepsy and continuous EEG monitoring for two years (from 2001–2003) in the neurophysiology department of Zurich University, Switzerland, under the late Pr. Hans Gregor Wieser, an internationally known epileptologist expert. Dr. Mesraoua is the Director of the Neurology Fellowship Program at the Neurology Section and an active member of the newly created Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar. He is also the assistant director of the residency program at the Qatar Medical School. He is the chairman and organizer of the well-known Qatar Epilepsy Symposium, which has been running annually for the past 14 years and is considered a landmark in the Gulf region. He has also started, together with other epileptologists from Qatar, the region, and elsewhere, a yearly International Epilepsy School Course, which has been attended by many neurologists from the area. Internationally, Dr. Mesraoua is an active and elected member of the Commission on Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), a regional branch of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), where he represents the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and where he holds the position of chief of the Epilepsy Epidemiology Section. Dr. Mesraoua is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the European Academy of Neurology, and the American Epilepsy Society. Dr. Mesraoua is the recipient of two research grants as the lead principal investigator from the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and the Hamad Hospital Internal Research Grant (IRGC) on the following topics: "Continuous EEG Monitoring in the ICU" and "Alpha-lactoalbumin, proof of concept in the treatment of epilepsy." He is a reviewer for the journal "Seizures" (European Epilepsy Journal) as well as Dove journals, and the author and co-author of many peer-reviewed publications and four book chapters in the field of epilepsy and clinical neurology. Dr. Mesraoua's main objectives are to encourage frequent gatherings of epileptologists and neurologists from the MENA region and the rest of the world, promote epilepsy teaching in the MENA region, and encourage multicenter studies involving neurologists and epileptologists in the MENA region, particularly epilepsy epidemiological studies. His main research interests include epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and clinical neurology.