Dr. Yahya Ethawi

Dr. Yahya Ethawi, MD 

Consultant Neonatologist | Consultant Pediatrician | Professor of Neonatology 

Dr. Yahya Ethawi is a highly experienced Consultant Neonatologist and Consultant Pediatrician with 34 years of medical experience, 30 years in pediatrics, and 23 years in neonatology. His career encompasses neonatal intensive care, general and acute pediatrics, pediatric emergencies, complex and diagnostically challenging cases, developmental and behavioral concerns, academic medicine, clinical research, medical education, healthcare leadership, and medical technology innovation. 

Dr. Ethawi graduated in Medicine (MBChB/MD) from Mustansiriyah University, Iraq, in 1993. He subsequently completed extensive pediatric training and obtained the Diploma of Child Health (DCH) in 1999 and the Arab Board of Pediatrics (CABP) in 2001. 

His advanced subspecialty training in neonatology included a Clinical Neonatology Fellowship at the Royal Women’s Hospital/University of Melbourne, Australia, followed by a three-year Clinical and Research Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship at the University of Manitoba, Canada, in a Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada-accredited program. He additionally completed a Neonatal Intensive Transport Fellowship at the University of Manitoba. 

Throughout his career, Dr. Ethawi has practiced and trained internationally across Iraq, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Canada, and Saudi Arabia, providing him with broad exposure to different healthcare systems, patient populations, clinical environments, and models of neonatal and pediatric care. 

Clinical Expertise 

Neonatology & Neonatal Intensive Care 

Dr. Ethawi has extensive experience in the comprehensive management of newborn infants, ranging from routine newborn care to extremely premature and critically ill neonates requiring advanced intensive care. 

His neonatal practice includes the assessment and management of: 

• Premature and extremely premature infants 

• Low and very-low-birth-weight infants 

• Critically ill newborns 

• Neonatal respiratory distress and respiratory failure 

• Perinatal asphyxia and neonatal encephalopathy 

• Neonatal infections and sepsis 

• High-risk deliveries 

• Neonatal feeding and nutritional problems 

• Neonatal neurological conditions 

• Congenital and acquired neonatal disorders 

• Hemodynamic instability 

• Complex and multisystem neonatal disease 

• Prolonged and complicated NICU admissions 

• Stabilization and transport of critically ill neonates 

He has extensive experience in neonatal resuscitation and the management of critically ill newborns from the delivery room through stabilization, intensive care, transport, recovery, discharge planning, and follow-up. 

Advanced Neonatal Respiratory Care 

Respiratory care and neonatal ventilation represent major areas of Dr. Ethawi’s clinical, academic, research, and teaching experience. 

His experience includes: 

• Conventional mechanical ventilation 

• High-Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation (HFOV) 

• High-Frequency Jet Ventilation (HFJV) 

• Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) 

• Nasal intermittent positive-pressure ventilation 

• Synchronized non-invasive ventilation 

• Volume-targeted ventilation 

• Inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) 

• Surfactant administration 

• Minimally invasive surfactant administration techniques 

• Assessment and management of neonatal respiratory failure 

He has also conducted extensive physician education in neonatal ventilation, including basic and advanced ventilation modes. 

General Pediatrics 

In addition to his neonatal subspecialty practice, Dr. Ethawi has extensive experience as a Consultant Pediatrician and manages the full spectrum of general pediatric presentations, from common childhood illnesses to complex medical conditions. 

His approach is comprehensive rather than disease-specific, taking into consideration the child’s medical history, development, growth, nutrition, behavior, family circumstances, investigations, previous treatment, and interactions between multiple medical conditions. 

His pediatric experience encompasses acute and chronic illnesses affecting infants, children, and adolescents. 

Complex & Diagnostically Challenging Pediatric Cases 

A particular clinical interest of Dr. Ethawi is the assessment and management of complicated, difficult, unusual, and diagnostically challenging pediatric cases. 

These may include children with: 

• Multiple simultaneous symptoms 

• Recurrent unexplained illness 

• Multisystem involvement 

• Unclear or conflicting diagnoses 

• Failure to respond to previous treatment 

• Chronic or recurrent symptoms 

• Multiple previous medical assessments 

• Complex developmental and medical problems 

• Conditions requiring coordination between several specialties 

His extensive experience in pediatrics and neonatology allows him to approach difficult cases from a broad clinical perspective, integrating history, physical findings, laboratory and imaging results, developmental information, previous treatments, and the child’s overall clinical trajectory. 

Pediatric Emergency & Acute Care 

Dr. Ethawi has extensive experience in the recognition, stabilization, investigation, and management of acutely and critically ill infants and children. 

His experience includes clinical assessment and leadership during pediatric and neonatal emergencies, resuscitation, respiratory compromise, shock and circulatory instability, seizures and neurological emergencies, severe infections, and other acute pediatric presentations. 

He has undertaken formal training in Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS), Basic Life Support (BLS), and Acute Care of at-Risk Newborns (ACoRN). 

Behavioral, Developmental & School-Related Pediatric Problems 

Dr. Ethawi’s general pediatric practice also includes children presenting with developmental, behavioral, communication, and school-related concerns. 

His clinical interests include assessment of: 

• Developmental delay 

• Speech delay 

• Language and communication difficulties 

• Behavioral concerns 

• Hyperactivity and attention difficulties 

• Learning difficulties 

• Poor school performance 

• Developmental and academic concerns 

• Growth and nutritional issues associated with developmental problems 

• Children with combinations of medical, behavioral, developmental, and educational difficulties 

His approach considers the whole child, recognizing that medical, developmental, behavioral, nutritional, family, school, and social factors may interact. 

Advanced Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) 

Dr. Ethawi has extensive experience and a particular interest in point-of-care ultrasound in neonatal and pediatric practice. 

His documented ultrasound skills include: 

• Neonatal cranial ultrasound and interpretation 

• Lung and respiratory POCUS 

• POCUS assessment of neonatal gastrointestinal disease and necrotizing enterocolitis 

• Echocardiography for hemodynamic assessment 

• Assessment of congenital and acquired cardiac disease 

• Ultrasound-guided arterial line placement 

• Ultrasound-guided PICC placement 

• Ultrasound-guided central venous access 

• Ultrasound-guided lumbar puncture 

• Ultrasound-guided suprapubic aspiration 

• Ultrasound-guided paracentesis 

• Ultrasound-guided pericardiocentesis 

• Ultrasound-guided pneumocentesis 

Dr. Ethawi has also served as a POCUS workshop instructor and has provided ultrasound education to physicians internationally. 

Neonatal & Pediatric Procedures 

His procedural experience includes: 

• Endotracheal intubation 

• Advanced neonatal resuscitation 

• PICC insertion 

• Umbilical arterial catheterization 

• Umbilical venous catheterization 

• Central venous access 

• Peripheral arterial line insertion 

• Intercostal/chest drain insertion for air or fluid 

• Exchange transfusion 

• Capillary blood sampling 

• Paracentesis 

• Ultrasound-guided procedures 

• Advanced airway and respiratory management 

Neonatal Transport Medicine 

Dr. Ethawi has substantial experience in neonatal transport medicine. 

He completed a Neonatal Intensive Transport Fellowship at the University of Manitoba and subsequently worked as a neonatal transport physician in Manitoba, Canada. 

His transport experience includes critically ill neonatal and pediatric patients transported by: 

• Ground ambulance 

• Rotary-wing aircraft/helicopter 

• Fixed-wing aircraft 

He subsequently served as Director of the Neonatal Emergency Transport Service (NETS-TC) in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. 

Family Communication & Difficult Clinical Decisions 

Dr. Ethawi has considerable experience communicating with families during stressful and high-risk clinical situations. 

His experience includes: 

• Antenatal counseling for extremely premature deliveries 

• Counseling regarding borderline viability 

• Counseling families regarding multiple congenital anomalies 

• Breaking difficult or sad news 

• Bereavement counselling 

• Follow-up bereavement support 

• Explaining complex medical information to parents 

• Shared decision-making in complex neonatal situations 

He places significant emphasis on clear communication, family involvement, and compassionate care while maintaining evidence-based clinical decision-making. 

Golden Hour & Gentle Neonatal Care 

Dr. Ethawi has particular interests in Golden Hour neonatal care and what he describes as “gentle care – doing less while providing more.” 

This approach emphasizes appropriate intervention while minimizing unnecessary handling, invasive procedures, physiological disturbance, pain, and treatment burden whenever clinically possible. 

His neonatal practice also includes therapeutic hypothermia/cooling for perinatal asphyxia, aEEG interpretation, blood-gas interpretation, metabolic-screen interpretation, and comprehensive discharge planning for long-term NICU patients. 

Academic & Teaching Career 

Teaching has been an important component of Dr. Ethawi’s career. 

His academic experience has included roles as: 

• Senior Lecturer and Clinical Instructor at Mustansiriyah University 

• Examiner of medical students 

• Supervisor and trainer for Diploma of Child Health candidates 

• Supervisor for medical students from Cornell-affiliated medical education in Qatar 

• Trainer for Arab Board pediatric residents 

• Trainer of medical students and pediatric residents at the University of Manitoba 

• Medical student teacher in Canada 

• Professor of Pediatrics and Neonatology 

• Professor/Adjunct Professor of Neonatology 

• Trainer and workshop instructor for physicians internationally 

He has taught undergraduate students, pediatric residents, neonatal trainees, specialists, nurses, and practicing pediatricians. 

International Physician Education 

Dr. Ethawi has been particularly active in disseminating neonatal knowledge beyond his own institutions. 

His educational activities have included: 

• Intensive neonatal training programs 

• Neonatal ventilation workshops 

• POCUS workshops 

• Surfactant-administration training 

• Online neonatal ventilation courses 

• Case-based teaching 

• Practical bedside teaching 

• Video-based medical education 

• Social-media-based physician education 

His ventilation education has covered conventional ventilation as well as advanced modalities including HFOV, HFJV, synchronized NIPPV, and volume-targeted ventilation. 

His CV documents educational activities involving physicians from Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Sudan, Libya, South Africa, China, India, and other countries. 

Research & Publications 

Dr. Ethawi has maintained a strong interest in clinical research, evidence-based medicine, neonatal technology, respiratory support, monitoring, and healthcare innovation. 

His research and publication portfolio includes work relating to: 

• Prematurity 

• Neonatal respiratory support 

• Mechanical ventilation 

• High-frequency ventilation 

• Volume-targeted ventilation 

• Minimally invasive surfactant therapy 

• Large-volume surfactant administration 

• Neonatal hemodynamics 

• Cerebral oxygenation monitoring 

• Necrotizing enterocolitis 

• Neonatal infections 

• Neonatal herpes simplex virus 

• Congenital Zika virus infection 

• COVID-19 and neonatal care 

• Pediatric hearing loss 

• Point-of-care ultrasound 

• Endotracheal tube position confirmation by ultrasound 

• Contactless neonatal imaging 

• Healthcare leadership 

• Health information technology and patient safety 

His academic work has included systematic reviews and meta-analyses, clinical studies, clinical trials, book chapters, journal publications, conference abstracts, and research presentations. 

He has undertaken formal education in biostatistics, epidemiology, research ethics, statistics, and Cochrane systematic-review methodology. 

Clinical Research in Neonatal Respiratory Care 

One of Dr. Ethawi’s important areas of research has been minimally invasive surfactant administration. 

His work has included ECALMIST, investigating the feasibility of administering larger-volume surfactant through a vascular catheter as a minimally invasive approach. 

His broader respiratory research has included high-frequency ventilation, volume-targeted ventilation, synchronized nasal ventilation, inhaled nitric oxide, and neonatal hemodynamics. 

Smart Neonatal & Pediatric Monitoring 

A distinctive component of Dr. Ethawi’s professional profile is his longstanding interest in smart neonatal and pediatric monitoring. 

Rather than considering monitoring simply as the display of conventional vital signs, his work explores how physiological information can be recorded, integrated, processed, interpreted, transformed, and presented to provide clinicians with additional information about the patient’s condition. 

His interests include: 

• Smart neonatal monitoring 

• Smart pediatric monitoring 

• Physiological markers (“physiomarkers”) 

• Physiological features (“physiofeatures”) 

• Multichannel physiological data acquisition 

• Integration of multiple monitoring signals 

• Contactless physiological monitoring 

• Real-time clinical information presentation 

• AI-assisted interpretation of clinical information 

• Clinical monitoring dashboards 

• Early recognition of physiological changes 

He has repeatedly presented on smart neonatal and pediatric monitoring internationally, including the concept of “seeing beyond the visible.” 

Contactless Imaging 

Dr. Ethawi has undertaken research and development work involving contactless methods of obtaining physiological information from newborn infants. 

His areas of interest include: 

• ● Visible-light contactless imaging 
  ● Infrared imaging 
  ● Thermal imaging 
  ● Temperature Imaging Processing (TIP) 
  ● Respiratory Inductance Plethysmography (RIP) 
  ● Contactless physiological assessment 
  ● Physiological signal extraction and processing 

His work explores the possibility of obtaining clinically useful physiological information while reducing physical contact, sensors, wires, and disturbance to vulnerable newborn infants. 

Healthcare Information Systems & Medical Software Development 

Dr. Ethawi is also a physician software developer and the creator and lead developer of MEnah HIS, a comprehensive Health Information System designed particularly for healthcare environments with limited resources. 

His HIS work includes: 

• Electronic Medical Records
  ● Clinical documentation
  ● NICU-specific functionality 
  ● Pharmacy management 
  ● Laboratory information systems 
  ● Reporting and analytics 
  ● Clinical workflow integration 
  ● Medical-device and clinical-data integration 
  ● Offline-capable healthcare systems 
  ● Systems suitable for low-bandwidth environments 

His objective has been to create technology around the actual needs of clinicians and healthcare facilities rather than requiring clinicians to adapt their practice to rigid software. 

Programming & Digital Healthcare 

Dr. Ethawi combines his clinical background with hands-on software-development skills. 

His documented development experience includes: 

• Python – data analysis, automation, healthcare applications, and AI/machine-learning prototypes for physiological-marker analysis
  ● React – clinical dashboards and smart-monitoring interfaces
  ● Laravel/PHP – backend development for HIS and web-based clinical applications 
  ● Clinical workflow/software integration 
  ● Health-data integration 
  ● Offline and low-bandwidth healthcare solutions 
  ● Medical informatics and bioinformatics 
  ● Telehealth and remote medical education 

This combination provides him with an unusual ability to communicate directly between the  

clinical and technical worlds. 

Artificial Intelligence in Neonatal & Pediatric Care 

Dr. Ethawi’s interests extend to the practical application of artificial intelligence in neonatal and pediatric medicine. 

His areas of interest include: 

• AI-assisted clinical decision support
  ● AI-supported smart monitoring
  ● Physiological pattern analysis 
  ● AI/ML analysis of physiomarkers 
  ● Automated clinical information processing 
  ● Intelligent clinical documentation 
  ● Integration of AI with HIS platforms 
  ● Digital solutions for resource-limited healthcare systems 

His approach to medical AI is grounded in decades of direct clinical practice and focuses on technology that can provide meaningful support to clinicians and patients. 

Healthcare Leadership & Service Development 

Dr. Ethawi has held clinical, academic, and administrative leadership responsibilities throughout his career. 

His experience has included: 

• NICU leadership
  ● Pediatric departmental leadership
  ● Neonatal transport leadership 
  ● Medical education leadership 
  ● Examination committees 
  ● Fellowship committees 
  ● Patient-care committees 
  ● Transitional-care committees 
  ● NICU database development 
  ● Clinical guideline development 
  ● Neonatal service development 

He has participated in or developed guidelines/programs relating to: 

• NICU admission criteria
  ● Newborn screening
  ● Neonatal transport 
  ● Neonatal fellowship training 
  ● Neonatal abstinence syndrome 

Clinical Philosophy 

Dr. Ethawi’s clinical approach combines extensive bedside experience, evidence-based medicine, careful clinical observation, technology, and individualized patient care. 

He has a particular interest in patients who require more than a routine diagnostic approach: the sick newborn, the acutely ill child, the child with unexplained recurrent symptoms, the patient with several interacting conditions, and children presenting with combinations of medical, developmental, behavioral, speech, learning, or school-related difficulties. 

His philosophy emphasizes looking at the whole patient rather than an isolated diagnosis, integrating clinical findings, physiological information, investigations, development, behavior, family concerns, and longitudinal progress. 

International Professional Experience 

Dr. Ethawi’s professional training and practice have extended across: 

🇮🇶 Iraq – Medical education, pediatric residency, Arab Board training, specialist pediatrics, university teaching and professorial roles. 

🇶🇦 Qatar – Pediatric and neonatology specialist practice, neonatal care, Arab Board training, medical student supervision, and neonatal education. 

🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates – Pediatric and neonatal specialist/consultant practice, senior consultancy, NICU leadership, academic activities, neonatal service development, teaching, research, POCUS, and healthcare innovation. 

🇦🇺 Australia – Advanced Clinical Neonatology Fellowship at the Royal Women’s Hospital/University of Melbourne. 

🇨🇦 Canada – Three-year Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship, Neonatal Intensive Transport Fellowship, neonatal practice, pediatric practice, neonatal transport, research, and university teaching. 

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia – Consultant neonatology, neonatal transport leadership, clinical service development, and academic activities. 

Additional Professional Strengths 

• More than three decades of clinical medicine 

• Broad experience spanning neonatology and general pediatrics 

• Extensive NICU and critically ill newborn experience 

• Management of complex and difficult pediatric cases 

• Pediatric emergency and acute-care experience 

• Developmental, behavioral, speech, learning and school-related assessment 

• Advanced neonatal respiratory and ventilation expertise 

• Neonatal transport medicine 

• Advanced neonatal and pediatric POCUS 

• Ultrasound-guided procedures and vascular access 

• Family counseling and difficult clinical communication 

• Medical education and international physician training 

• Research, systematic reviews and publications 

• Healthcare leadership and clinical-service development 

• Health informatics and HIS development 

• Programming and software development 

• Artificial intelligence applications in medicine 

• Smart patient monitoring 

• Contactless imaging and physiological monitoring research 

• Telehealth and digital medical education 

Nationality: Canadian.

Languages Spoken: Arabic, English.

Specialty: Pediatrics

Subspecialty: Neonatology