Sami Saeed Al-Mudarra, chief officer at the Saudi Center for Disease Prevention and Control

Dr. Sami Saeed Al-Mudarra has been the chief officer of epidemiology, surveillance, and preparedness at the Saudi Center for Disease Prevention and Control since May 2019.
He gained his MBBS professional medicine and surgery degrees from King Khalid University’s (KKU) college of medicine in 2000 and completed a diploma in field epidemiology in 2010 at the medicine college of King Saud University. In 2016, he obtained a Ph.D. in medicine, specializing in epidemiology and public health, from the University of Leeds, in the UK.
He began his career at KKU’s clinical pharmacology department in 2001 and three years later moved to the children’s hospital at King Fahd Medical City (KFMC).
From October 2006 to September 2008, Al-Mudarra worked in the departments of pediatrics and quality assurance at King Salman Hospital and between 2008 and 2011 was employed on the field epidemiology training program (FETP).
The program was launched by the Ministry of Health and tailored to support the preventive medicine divisions with qualified Saudi professionals in the field of epidemics detection and control.
In 2016, Al-Mudarra was appointed deputy supervisor of the FETP and head of the academic affairs department, and 16 months later became the program’s general supervisor. He also worked as a Ph.D. postgraduate in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Leeds’ school of medicine from October 2011 to April 2016.
He has been an acting board member of the Saudi Board of Preventive Medicine since January 2018 and has presented several abstracts in medical conferences, such as the congress meetings of the European Society of Cardiology in Barcelona and London in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
With many specialty-related publications and memberships, Al-Mudarra is a current member of nine national committees (scientific and executive) dealing with the prevention and control of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.