Abderrahim Oulhaj

Abderrahim Oulhaj serves as a Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at Khalifa University, bringing over 28 years of academic and research experience. His prior roles include eight years as Associate Professor at United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) where he directed the PhD program in Public Health, and nearly a decade as a senior statistician at University of Oxford leading projects like OPTIMA and EXSCEL.

His educational background includes:

• PhD in Statistics (2003) from the Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences, UCL, Belgium
• Master degree in Statistics (1997) from the Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences, UCL, Belgium

Prof. Oulhaj specializes in statistical modeling for infectious and chronic diseases—including diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, cancer, neurodegenerative conditions, COPD, and COVID-19—with methodological expertise in advanced survival analysis, risk prediction modeling, longitudinal data analysis, and joint modeling of repeated measures with time-to-event data. His work increasingly integrates artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning into healthcare analytics.

He has received multiple research excellence awards from UAE University and Khalifa University, alongside three international patents and copyrights focused on Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular diseases.

Prof. Oulhaj directed UAEU's PhD program in Public Health and currently leads the KU-SEHA Clinical Research Certificate Program training 150+ medical professionals across Abu Dhabi. His grant leadership encompasses the EU-funded POCCardio project on cardiovascular diseases and the European Society of Cardiology's Cardiovascular Risk Collaboration Unit, with significant contributions to UAE national committees for therapeutic trials, epidemiology, diagnostics, and cardiovascular prevention guidelines.

He operates within international research frameworks through POCCardio and the European Society of Cardiology, while maintaining strategic ties with the UAE Department of Health and SEHA for clinical research capacity building.