Kamal Chemali, MD

About

Kamal Raymond Chémali, MD joined University Hospitals in 2021, almost 22 years after the completion of his neurology residency at University Hospitals. He is the Director of the Autonomic Nervous System Program and the Medical Director of the Music and Medicine Program in the Neurological Institute and an Associate Professor of Neurology at Case Western Reserve University.  Dr. Chémali specialized in Neurology at Case Western Reserve University-University Hospitals of Cleveland and sub-specialized in Neuromuscular Diseases, Electromyography and Neurophysiology at the Cleveland Clinic, where he subsequently practiced for twelve years in the Neuromuscular Center. As a Resident at University Hospitals, and as a Fellow and Staff Physician at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Chémali became intimately involved in the Autonomic Laboratory and pioneered the use of Infrared Dynamic Pupillometry in the diagnosis of mild and pre-clinical autonomic disorders. He also was heavily involved in Medical Education and took the lead on building the second year neurosciences curriculum at the newly founded Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CCLCM). At CCLCM, he directed the Neuroscience Course Year 2 for six consecutive years. He then moved to Sentara Healthcare in Norfolk, Virginia to found and direct the Sentara Neuromuscular and Autonomic Center that an EMG Laboratory and a state-of-the-art Autonomic Laboratory. The Center drew referrals from all over the United States and abroad. In Norfolk, Dr. Chémali was also involved in medical and resident education as an Associate Professor of Neurology at Eastern Virginia Medical School.

Dr. Chémali started studying the piano at age seven and continued his musical activities throughout his medical studies and training. Combining his role as a physician and a musician, Dr. Chémali’s firm belief in the power of music in connecting people and in healing disease led him to start the Doctor-Patient Music Connection Program, where physicians and professional or student musicians perform for patients in a hospital setting, and the award-winning Music and the Brain™ Concert-Lectures, educational scientific symposia on the effect of music on the nervous system, incorporating live performances. Along those lines, he was the co-founder of the Cleveland Clinic Arts and Medicine Institute and the Founding Director of the Sentara Music and Medicine Center. An active educator and researcher in the field of music and neuroscience, Dr. Chémali lectures, narrates and participates in lecture-concerts all over the world in concert halls, universities, music festivals and conservatories, in special events that illustrate the important effect of music on health and disease. He has appeared on the stages of prestigious musical institutions such as the Lincoln Center in New York, the Salzburg Music Festival in Austria, The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in New Mexico and the Abu Dhabi International Music Festival, among others. On the clinical side, he is a champion of Music Therapy and its applications in neurological disorders.

Nationally, he served as a Course Director at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and is the current Chair of the Autonomic Section of the AAN.