People

omar-el-shahawy
Omar El-Shahawy, MD, MPH, PhD
NYU Langone Health - Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health, Section on Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug Use
NYU School of Global Public Health - Assistant Professor of Global Health, Department of Global Health
NYU Abu Dhabi - Adjunct Assistant Professor in Public Health, Public Health Research Center
Education
PhD, Social and Behavioral Health, Virginia Commonwealth University
MPH, International Health Development, Vrije University and the Royal Tropical Institute
MBBCh, Bachelor of Medicine, Ain Shams University School of Medicine
Research Interests
New and alternative tobacco products, Patient-physician shared decision-making, Gender disparities, Tobacco use cessation programs, Tobacco cessation among vulnerable populations, Program planning and evaluation, mHealth, Tobacco use prevention and policy
BIO
Omar El-Shahawy is an Assistant Professor in the New York University School of Medicine, Department of Population, Section on Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug Use. He also holds an affiliated faculty position at the Department of Global Health, NYU School of Global Public Health.

Dr. El-Shahawy obtained his medical degree at the University of Ain Shams in Cairo, Egypt, in 2002 and his Master of Public Health in international health development from the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 2007. He was awarded the prestigious Hubert Humphrey fellowship from the Department of State and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in 2010. During his fellowship, he had a particular focus on gender issues in adolescent and marginalized groups. He later obtained his PhD in Social and Behavioral Health Sciences from the Department of Health Behavior and Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015. During his postdoctoral fellowship at NYU School of Medicine, Dr. El Shahawy focused on alternative tobacco product use among vulnerable populations including people with substance use disorder. His current research interests include novel tobacco products, smoking cessation among vulnerable populations, and patient-physician decision making.
Projects
Principal Investigator, Effectiveness and Impact of Counseling Enhanced with Electronic Cigarettes for Harm Reduction in Smokers with Opioid Use Disorder. Active
Principal Investigator, Evaluating Smoking Cessation and Harm Reduction Approaches among People Living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Active
Principal Investigator, Capacity Building of Health Care Providers in Egypt to Counsel Pregnant Women and Their Families Regarding Smoking Cessation and Second Hand Smoking Avoidance. Completed
Principal Investigator, Use of E-Cigarettes for Smoking Harm Reduction among People Living with HIV/AIDS. Completed
Publications

Recent

Yao ZQ, Tasdighi E, Dardari ZA, Erhabor J, Jha KK, Osuji N, Rajan T, Boakye E, Rodriguez CJ, Lima JAC, Judd SE, Feldman T, Fialkow JA, Vasan RS, El-Shahawy O, Benjamin EJ, Bhatnagar A, Defilippis AP, Nasir K, Blaha MJ (2024).
Use of e-cigarettes, traditional combustible cigarettes, and high sensitivity C-reactive protein: The Cross Cohort Collaboration
American Heart Journal [Epub 2024 Oct 24]. doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2024.10.012.

Stevens ER, Cleland CM, Shunk A, El-Shahawy O (2024).
Evaluating strategies to recruit health researchers to participate in online survey research
BMC Medical Research Methodology, 24 (1), 153. doi: 10.1186/s12874-024-02275-6. PMCID: PMC11256559.

Vojjala M, Stevens ER, Nicholson A, Morgan T, Kaneria A, Xiang G, Wilker O, Wisniewski R, Melnic I, El-Shahawy O, Berger KI, Sherman SE (2024).
Switching to e-cigarettes as harm reduction among individuals with chronic disease who currently smoke: Results of a pilot randomized controlled trial
Nicotine and Tobacco Research [Epub 2024 Jul 12]. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntae158.

Karey E, Xu S, He P, Niaura RS, Cleland CM, Stevens ER, Sherman SE, El-Shahawy O, Cantrell J, Jiang N (2024).
Longitudinal association between e-cigarette use and respiratory symptoms among US adults: Findings from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study Waves 4-5
PLoS One, 19 (2), e0299834. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299834. PMCID: PMC10903800.

Stevens ER, Mead-Morse EL, Labib K, Kahn LG, Choi S, Sherman SE, Oncken C, Williams NJ, Loney T, El-Shahawy O (2024).
Prevalence and factors associated with second hand smoke exposure among a sample of pregnant women in Cairo, Egypt
BMC Women's Health, 24 (1), 145. doi: 10.1186/s12905-023-02821-2. PMCID: PMC10898124.

Dr. El-Shahawy's MyBibliography Profile