About

Carmel Bouclaous, PhD

Associate Professor
Social Medicine Discipline Coordinator
Director of Student Affairs

Advisor, LAU Medical Students Association & LAU Section-Lebanese Medical Students International Committee (LeMSIC)
National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME)’s Executive Chief Proctor

Dr. Bouclaous joined the school of medicine in 2015, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2023. She teaches social medicine, global health, and nutrition in the MD program, and serves as social medicine discipline coordinator. She is founding director of the social medicine and global health program at GME level. She served in 2023 as teaching faculty in the McGill Summer Institutes in Global Health.

Dr. Bouclaous’ research focuses on the determinants of health, and health inequities among host and refugee populations. She has several peer-reviewed publications and ongoing projects. She is a review editor for Frontiers, editorial board member of Critical Public Health, and peer reviewer for several high-impact academic journals. She has been a full member of the World Association of Medical Editors for the past 10 years.

Other than her engagement in international research networks, she was invited in 2021 by the World Health Organization’s Enhanced Wellbeing Unit to serve on an expert panel for the assessment of population health literacy. She is completing a second term as member of the Research Committee of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. Prior to that, she served for five years on the Standing Committee on Research Standards and co-chaired the Research Interest Group of the International Health Literacy Association. She has been on the scientific program advisory committee of several international conferences, taken part as speaker and session chair, and is regularly solicited as conference abstract reviewer. She has served as grant application reviewer for agencies in Switzerland and the United States among which the Institute for Healthcare Advancement. 

Dr. Bouclaous serves on the first Board of Directors of the Lebanese Medical Students’ International Committee (LeMSIC), and heads the Medical Students’ Association (MSA) Advisory Council. At LAU, she is the advisor of medical students’ clubs since 2016, and supports them in organizing awareness campaigns and attending to the health needs of the most vulnerable. She oversees the LeMSIC-IFMSA student exchange program through which we host international students on professional or research exchange, and Med-Ex through which we welcome Lebanese medical students for observership. She is a member of the International Services Committee, a standing committee at LAU for student mobility, since 2015.

Dr. Bouclaous serves as Director of Student Affairs, and the National Board of Medical Examiners’ (NBME) first Executive Chief Proctor for LAU. She has been instrumental in registering our MD program in the New York State Education Department, instituting NBME examination system at our school, and securing accreditation of our school through her work within the Accreditation Steering Committee.

Prior to joining LAU, Dr Bouclaous worked extensively in healthcare management. She holds a PhD in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva), a Master of Public Health and a Master of Nutrition from the American University of Beirut. She completed a Master-Class in Science and Ethics (74 hours) at the Bioethics Center of the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation (Paris). She is an LAU Faculty Fellow (cohort of Fall 2021 Faculty Fellows Program).

Selected Publications

  1. Abdelkhalik M, Boutros E, Trad K, Arafat O, Alyousfi MN, Bouclaous C. . Moving towards health promoting schools: effectiveness of an educational intervention to improve knowledge, attitude and beliefs regarding heart attack, and CPR knowledge in high school students in Lebanon. Frontiers in Public Health (2024) 12:1355766. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1355766
  2. Issa E, El Choueiry F, Alhajj M, Shbaklo K, Bouclaous C* . A qualitative investigation of university students’ experience of the Beirut port explosion. Journal of Loss & Trauma (2023) 29(4): 454–473. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2023.2264785
  3. Bouclaous C, Daher R, Osseily W, Rosário R, Hamam H. Association between health and levels of health literacy in 13- to 16-year-old adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic: the case of Lebanon. Canadian Journal of School Psychology (2023) 38(4): 302-316. https://doi.org/10.1177/08295735231197344
  4. Bouclaous C, Albaini O, Bou Malham M, Salem M-J, Deeb M, Al Ghadban F. Levels and correlates of functional cervical cancer literacy among Lebanese women: a cross-sectional study. Current Women’s Health Reviews (2024) 20(3):e040523216508.https://doi.org/10.2174/1573404820666230504103521
  5. Bouclaous C, Al Kamand A, Daher R, Al Razim A, Kaedbey HD. Digital health literacy and online information-seeking behavior of Lebanese university students in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic and infodemic. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy (2023) 18(1): 60-77. https://doi.org/10.18261/njdl.18.1.6
  6. Bouclaous C, Fadlallah N, El Helou MO, Dadaczynski K. University students’ experience of the Beirut port explosion: associations with subjective well-being and subjective symptoms of mental strain. Journal of Mental Health (2023) 32(3): 602-611. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2022.2140785
  7. Bouclaous C, Azar LJ, Barmo N, Daher R, Tabaja J, El Hout G, Berika L. Levels and Correlates of Numeracy Skills in Lebanese Adults with Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2022)19:10557. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710557
  8. Bouclaous C, Salem S, Ghanem A, Saade N, El Haddad J, Bou Malham M, Al Osta S, Matar K, Nassar E, Yared G, Khiami M, Eid MJ. Health literacy levels and predictors among Lebanese adults visiting outpatient clinics in Beirut. HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice (2021) 5(4):e295–e309. https://doi.org/10.3928/24748307-20211012-02
  9. Bouclaous C, Haddad I, Alrazim A, Kolanjian H, El Safadi A.. Health literacy levels and correlates among refugees in Mount Lebanon. Public Health (2021) 199: 25-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.08.006
  10. Bouclaous CH, Alrazim A, Chababi J, Jamaleddine W, Nassar E, Maalouf A, Dakour Aridy S, Naccache M, Abboud DM, Assi M, Slika M. Association between sources of sexuality education, sexual beliefs and behaviors in Lebanese young adults: A university-based cross-sectional study, Sex Education (2021) 21 (1):1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2020.1722624 10.1080/14681811.2020.1722624
  11. Bouclaous C, El Safadi A, Basbous M, Haddad I, Mahdi A, Zibara V, Ghazi R, Naamani K, El Karaaoui J, Salameh R. Prevalence of Aggression in Displaced Syrian Adolescents Attending Afternoon Public Schools in Beirut, Journal of Refugee Studies. (2021) 34 (2): 2406–2420, https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fez013
  12. Bouclaous C.. Policy coherence for improved nutrition in Switzerland. Journal of Local and Global Health Perspectives (2015) 1, https://doi.org/10.5339/jlghp.2015.1
  13. Bouclaous C and Jaubert R. The use of household budget surveys to estimate the availability of fruits and vegetables for consumption in Swiss households after deduction of food waste. Global Journal of Medicine and Public Health (2015) 4(5).
  14. Comair YG, Van Ness PC, Chamoun RB, Bouclaous CH. Neocortical resections. In: Engel J, Pedley TA. Epilepsy: A Comprehensive Textbook, Second Edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008: 1869-78.
  15. Skaf GS, Domloj NT, Fehlings MG, Bouclaous CH, Sabbagh AS, Kanafani ZA, Kanj SS. Pyogenic spondylodiscitis: an overview. Journal of Infection and Public Health (2010) 3(1):5-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2010.01.001
  16. Skaf G, Bouclaous C, Alaraj A, Chamoun R. Clinical outcome of surgical treatment of failed back surgery syndrome. Surgical Neurology (2005) 64(6):483-488. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surneu.2005.04.009
  17. Bouclaous C, Torbay N, Nassar C, Hwalla (Baba) N. Modification of glucocorticoid effects on body weight gain, plasma lipids by changes in diet composition, Nutrition Research (2003) 23(8): 1105-1115, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0271-5317(03)00104-0

Professional and Research Interests 

Education and Training

Professional Organizations and Memberships

Editor

Keywords

Social medicine, global health, health literacy, health inequity, public health, nutrition, refugee health