Dr. Jack El Sawda joined the Department of Medicine as an Instructor in Medicine for the Division of Hospital Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in July 2019. He was born and raised in the northern part of Lebanon, in a small town, along the Mediterranean coast. He completed his undergraduate studies in biology, medical school at the University of Balamand in Lebanon, and his post graduate research studies in infectious diseases at the American University of Beirut. He moved to the United States to complete internal medicine residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.
Dr. El Sawda is interested in clinical and academic medicine. During his medical training, Dr. El Sawda was very active in resident and student teaching with a particular focus on evidence based medicine, quality improvement projects, and medical ethics. His primary clinical focus will be caring for patients with oncologic malignancies.
His research interests include cancer biology and immunotherapy of cancer. He has worked on several randomized clinical trials involving the use of immunotherapy with interferon in patients with metastatic melanoma, through the Hillman cancer center, in Pittsburgh. He has contributed to multiple manuscripts on metastatic melanoma and immunotherapy and has presented posters at the Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer.
Dr. El Sawda’s volunteer interests include organ donation and procurement, HIV awareness and prevention. On a personal level, he is excited to learn more about St. Louis. His interests include food, language, and travel. In his spare time, he likes to hike, bike, cook, bake, travel to national parks, and learn new languages. He is fluent in Arabic, French, and is currently learning Spanish.