Elias Karim Shaya, MD, DLFAPA

Associate Professor

Department of Psychiatry
Georgetown University School of Medicine

General Information

Undergraduate Degree: American University of Beirut

Graduate Degree: American University of Beirut

Residency Psychiatry: Emory University, and Johns Hopkins University

Clinical Work: Certified in Geriatric Psychiatry with responsibility for Psychiatric services in MedStar North.

Research Focus: Using AI to enhance the acuity assessment of inpatient units and referred patients for more effective referral management, unit occupancy, and patients’ access to care.

Assessment of a Unit-Level Acuity Tool in Inpatient Psychiatry

BIO

Elias K. Shaya, MD, a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association serves as The MedStar North Regional Medical Director and Senior Associate Executive Director for Behavioral Health Services at MedStar Health, the largest healthcare system in the Baltimore-Washington region. Dr. Shaya is a Past President of the Maryland Psychiatric Society, and its current Assembly Representative to the American Psychiatric Association. In addition to his administrative and leadership responsibilities, he maintains an active clinical practice, sub-specializing in geriatric psychiatry and cognitive and mood disorders.

One of the first in the country to receive dual training in psychiatry and nuclear medicine, Dr. Shaya has experience using functional brain imaging technologies, especially Positron Emission Tomography, to study neuropharmacology and neuroreceptors in neuropsychiatric disorders. His other research and clinical interests include innovations in care delivery, CPT coding & physician payment models, as well as clinical documentation and the electronic health record, and he has led the MedStar team in the development and implementation of the Electronic Behavioral Health Record for ambulatory and inpatient Behavioral Health Services since 2012.

His work has been published in journals, such as Neuropsychopharmacology, The American Journal of Psychiatry, and The Journal of Neurochemistry. Dr. Shaya has served as a consultant as well as on Advisory Boards and the Speakers Bureaus of several major US pharmaceutical companies.

Over the past couple of years, Dr. Shaya has led MedStar’s comprehensive response to the Opioid Epidemic in partnership with the Maryland Hospital Association and the State of Maryland’s Department of Health. Dr. Shaya was instrumental in the recent study and recommendations issued by the Maryland Hospital Association titled the Roadmap to an Essential Comprehensive System of Behavioral Health Care for Maryland.

In addition to his clinical, research, and academic pursuits, Dr. Shaya serves on several boards including the Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry.

Prior to joining MedStar, he was in private practice and early in his career, he was a researcher at The Johns Hopkins University and the National Institutes of Health, where he served as a Senior Fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He is a graduate of The American University in Beirut, Lebanon, and he completed his internship and residencies in Psychiatry and Nuclear Medicine at Emory University Affiliated Hospitals in Atlanta, GA, followed by a fellowship at The Johns Hopkins University. He is board certified in General and Geriatric Psychiatry.

Dr. Shaya has been a regularly invited speaker at local, national, and international meetings and has had regular appearances and interviews on TV, radio, and in the written press.

Dr. Shaya has been recognized in Baltimore Magazine’s “Top Doctors” since 2012 for the last 12 years consecutively. He has received several local and national awards, honors, and recognitions including:

The Exemplary Psychiatrist Award of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

The Distinguished Fellowship Award, the highest membership honor the American Psychiatric Association bestows upon members.