6th Annual Pediatric
Neuroscience
Conference
&
3rd GCC Pediatric
Neurology
Conference

Dr. Ruba Benini

Dr. Ruba Benini is a Pediatric Neurologist and Epileptologist, currently serving as Medical Director of the Neurodiagnostic Laboratory and Program Director of the Pediatric Neurology Fellowship at Sidra Medicine. She is also an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar.

Dr. Benini is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada (FRCPC). She earned her PhD in Neuroscience from the Montreal Neurological Institute in 2006 and her medical degree from McGill University in 2008. She completed her pediatric neurology residency at McGill University Health Center in 2014 and a fellowship in Pediatric Epilepsy at Ste. Justine Hospital in 2016.

Before joining Sidra Medicine in 2017, Dr. Benini practiced at Montreal Children's Hospital and King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Her research focuses on the genetics of pediatric epilepsy, aiming to improve diagnosis and treatment outcomes for affected children.

Dr. Khalid Al-Kharazi

Dr. Khalid Al-Kharazi is a senior pediatric neurosurgeon at Sidra Medicine with about 25 years of neurosurgical experience. Before joining the medical team in Qatar in 2014, he practiced in Canada, Germany, Jordan, and Yemen. He holds neurosurgery certifications from Canada, Germany, the UK, and Jordan. He completed a clinical fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at the University of British Columbia (BCCH, Vancouver).

Dr. Al-Kharazi is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and earned the German board certification after training in Berlin. He has pioneered several neurosurgical interventions in Qatar, including minimally invasive craniosynostosis and epilepsy surgeries.

Dr. Al-Kharazi is the director of pediatric neurosurgery fellowship program and is an examiner in the Qatar Board of Medical Specialties (QBMS). Dr. Al-Kharazi also holds an MBA from the University of Manchester, UK. Dr. Al-Kharazi is associate professor at Qatar University and assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar.

Dr. Majid Aziz

Dr. Majid Aziz is a pediatric neurologist and epileptologist with expertise in complex epilepsy, epilepsy surgery, and EEG. His other areas of interest are movement disorders, headaches, and stroke. Dr. Aziz received his medical degree from Pakistan and trained in pediatrics and child neurology in the United Kingdom. He then completed a fellowship in movement disorder at Evelina Children’s Hospital, London, and a second fellowship in pediatric epilepsy and EEG at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. He has been working at SKMC, Abu Dhabi, since 2019. Before joining SKMC, he was working as a Consultant Paediatric Neurologist in the Northern Children's Epilepsy Surgery Service at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, UK.

Dr. Khalid Mohamed

Dr. Khalid Mohamed is a Senior Attending Physician in Pediatric Neurology and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics. He is a fully trained pediatric neurologist specializing in complex disabilities and movement disorders, with expertise in gait analysis and botulinum toxin injections.

From 2004 to 2006, Dr. Mohamed served as lead clinician for clinical governance at Alder Hey Hospital, Liverpool, and was appointed Chief of Pediatric Neurology in 2010. He holds a postgraduate diploma in medical education and is recognized as a leading authority in pediatric and neurology education. He has served as program director for both the Pediatric and Neurology Residency/Fellowship programs.

Dr. Mohamed is a certified Level 1 coach with the Dartmouth Institute’s Microsystems Academy and an International Quality Fellow with IHI. He has developed quality improvement projects targeting no-show reduction and referral management in outpatient services. He has authored over 20 peer-reviewed articles and presented at regional conferences, focusing on improving access to care and coaching for healthcare improvement.

Jenny Sacree

Jenny Sacree. With more than 40 years of neuroscience experience, Jenny is presently the CNL for Movement disorders, rehabilitation medicine, and spines. She has been in Sidra Medicine for 5 years, completing the rest of her neuroscience experience in Bristol, UK. She is passionate about education and teaches neuroscience with the ISPN around the world.

Issam Kadoura

BSN
Clinical Nurse Leader – Neurology and General Pediatric Clinic, Sidra Medicine

Issam Kadoura is a dedicated Clinical Nurse Leader at the Neurology and General Pediatric Clinic at Sidra Medicine, where he has been contributing since 2017. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Jordan University of Science and Technology, earned between 1999 and 2003.

Issam began his nursing career at Jordan Hospital as a Registered Nurse, where he was promoted to Charge Nurse, serving from 2003 to 2007. In 2007, he joined King Fahad Medical City’s Neuroscience Center ward as a Staff Nurse and was later appointed Charge Nurse of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit in 2009. His leadership and clinical expertise led to his promotion as Epilepsy Nurse Coordinator from 2012 to 2017. In this role, Issam was instrumental in developing and leading specialized epilepsy care programs, clinical leadership, and multidisciplinary care coordination.

Kurt Thompson

Kurt Thompson, BScPT, MRSC is a specialist pediatric physiotherapist at Sidra Medicine in Doha, Qatar. His areas of interest are improving function and wellness in children undergoing treatment for cancer as well as children with neurological disabilities of various congenital or acquired etiologies. He is passionate about quality improvement and implementation of evidence-based practice across various multidisciplinary teams.

Dr. Husam Kayyali

Dr. Husam Kayyali is the Chief of the Pediatric Neurology Division at Sidra Medicine. He is also serving as the Director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at Sidra Medicine. Dr. Kayyali is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Pediatric Neurology, Clinical Neurophysiology, and Epilepsy. Before joining Sidra Medicine, Dr. Kayyali was an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Neurology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and he co-established the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Missouri. Then he moved to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Saudi Arabia, where he served as the Head of the Pediatric Neurology Section and the Director of the Pediatric Neurology Fellowship Program.

Dr. Robert Keating

Robert Keating, MD  is currently the Senior Vice President of Neuroscience and Behavoiral Medicine as well as the McCullough Distinguished Professor of Neurosurgery and Chief of Neurosurgery at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. Dr. Keating graduated from Georgetown University Medical School in 1983 and subsequently went to New York where he did his training in Neurosurgery at Montefiore/Albert Einstein Medical Centers in the Bronx as well as completeing fellowships in Pediatric Neurosurgery and Craniofacial Surgery there in 1990. Dr Keating returned to Montefiore/Albert Enstein after serving in the Navy and then moved to Washington in 1996 to join the faculty at the Children’s National Medical Center becoming Chief of the of Neurosurgery in 2003 and Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics in 2008.

He has published and presented extensively in the field and is senior editor of “ Atlas of Orbitocranial Surgery” and “Tumors of the Pediatric Nervous System” and recently edited the second edition of Neurosurgical Operative Atlas of Pediatric Neurosurgery, (Thieme publisehed in 2025 as well as “Focused Ultrasound (FUS) in Neurosurgery: Current approaches and new Horizons” to be published in 2026.

He currently maintains a busy practice of pediatric neurosurgery, with an emphasis on tumors, Chiari malformations, craniofacial reconstruction, spinal dysraphism, spasticity and brachial plexus surgery and continues be actively involved with long-standing memberships in the CNS , AANS , ASPN and is currently on the Executive Board of the ISPN.

Dr. Jehan Al Rayahi

Dr. Jehan Al Rayahi joined Sidra Medicine in 2018. She is the Division chief of neuroimaging and an attending pediatric neuroradiologist. She is also the program director of both their pediatric radiology and Pediatric Neuroradiology fellowship programs.

Dr. Jehan is a Weill Cornell Medicine graduate from the inaugural class of 2008. She completed her residency at Hamad Hospital in Qatar. She then completed two fellowships in pediatric radiology and pediatric neuroradiology at the Hospital of Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. Her main interests and research are in the genomics of pediatric neuroradiology.

Dr. Jehan is also interested in pediatric epilepsy research and is the lead neuroradiologist in Sidra’s Epilepsy Surgical Program.

Dr. Mahmoud Fawzi Osman

Dr. Mahmoud Fawzi is a senior attending physician in pediatric neurology at Sidra Medicine and Hamad Hospital. He also serves as an assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar. Previously, Dr. Mahmoud worked as a consultant in pediatric neurology at Hamad Hospital from 2006 until 2017. He then joined Sidra Medicine as a senior attending physician in pediatric neurology. He specializes in treating patients with muscle disease, multiple sclerosis, and tuberous sclerosis. He got research grants in congenital brain anomalies and muscle diseases, hereditary spastic paraplegia and microcephaly, and spinal muscular atrophy. He is widely published and has lectured at local and international conferences. Dr. Fawzi has extensive experience in pediatric neurology since 1995. He has more than 50 publications in international journals.

Prof. Amna Al-Futaisi

Professor Amna Mohammed Al Futaisi is a distinguished leader in the field of pediatric neurology, currently serving as a Professor at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), and as the assistant dean for research and postgraduate studies. In her clinical capacity, she is a Senior Consultant Pediatric Neurologist at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital.

Her clinical and research interests are centered on:

• Complex epilepsy and neurophysiology
• Neurogenetics and neurometabolic diseases
• Cerebral palsy and neurodevelopmental disorders

Dr. Al-Futaisi’s influence extends across regional and international borders through her extensive leadership roles. She serves as the President of the Oman Pediatric neurology society and vice president of Oman pediatric epilepsy society. Furthermore, she chairs the Pediatric Neurology Fellowship Program of the Arab Board of Medical Specialization, where she shapes the training of the next generation of pediatric neurology specialists.

A researcher and dedicated educator, Dr. Al-Futaisi has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications. She remains a driving force behind collaborative research and multidisciplinary care programs aimed at improving neurological health outcomes for children both in the Middle East and globally.

Dr. Ahmed Bamaga

Dr. Ahmed K. Bamaga, MD, FRCPC, ABPN, CSCN (EEG & EMG) is a Consultant in Adult and Pediatric Neuromuscular Medicine and Child Neurology, Associate Professor, and Head of the Pediatric Neurology Unit at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His clinical and research interests focus on pediatric neuromuscular disorders, including spinal muscular atrophy, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, inherited neuropathies, and congenital myopathies. He is actively involved in clinical research, national initiatives, and multidisciplinary care, and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in pediatric neurology and neuromuscular medicine. He is also master degree candidate in neuro disability.

Dr. Younes Mokrab

Research

Prof. Younes Mokrab is Principal Investigator, Head of Population Genomics Medicine, and Director of the Neuroscience Research Program at Sidra Medicine. He also holds adjunct academic positions at Weill Cornell Medicine and Qatar University. Prof. Mokrab obtained a BSc in Genetics from the University of Sheffield (2003) and a PhD in Bioinformatics from Prof. Tom Blundell’s lab at the University of Cambridge (2007), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship on modelling ion channelopathies with Prof. Mark Sansom at the University of Oxford (2010). He then moved to the pharmaceutical industry, first at Lonza Biologics in in silico biopharmaceutical engineering and then at Eli Lilly leading early-stage neuropsychiatry drug discovery. Since joining Sidra in 2015, he has helped establish research programs in population and medical genetics, co-founded the Qatar Genome Program Research Consortium, and built collaborations with multiple international consortia. His lab’s expertise spans long-read sequencing, multiomics, data science, and large-scale genome studies. He has co-authored over 60 papers, including in Nature and Cell, and has received numerous grants and awards.

Dr. Youssef Kousa

Dr. Youssef Kousa is a neonatal neurologist and scientist who has been at the forefront of developing synergistic teams in studying emerging pathogens and translating these insights into therapeutic targets. Dr. Kousa is the Founding Director of the Prenatal Infection and Neurodevelopmental Genetics (PING) Consortium. Formed nearly a decade ago, the PING consortium is an international clinical and translational research effort designed to identify maternal and prenatal factors affecting virally induced brain injury, develop diagnostic platforms, and advance therapeutic protocols. With investments by NIH and CDC, the PING Consortium includes six countries, 19 cities, 23 centers, 35 researchers, nearly 8,000 mother/infant participants, and 3063 bio-banked samples. The team is systematically gathering and maintaining volumes of clinical, laboratory, imaging, developmental, and genomic data. The datasets are currently being used to identify modifiers of epidemic viral infections and brain injury.

Dr. Kousa is also the founding principal investigator of the K-Labs research program, a discovery-oriented basic research effort using cell, tissue culture, and animal systems to study emerging viral infections and test therapeutic targets. Expertise in the lab includes neurology, pediatrics, neurobiology, virology, bioinformatics, genomics, immunology, vaccine development and RNA therapeutics.