Abdalla Al-haj PhD

Dr. Abdalla N. Al-Haj has more than 30 years of experience in administrative, managerial, and technical responsibilities as a medical and health Physicist. As an administrator, he was the at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Director of SSDL, Head of the Health Physics Section and Radiation Safety Officer for more than 10 years. He planned, organized, issued policies and regulations, and made administrative decisions. As the Director, he established the administrative policies and technical standards for radiotherapy and radiation protection radiation measurements, He established the first TLD intercomparison program for all service providers in the country. The program was adopted by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), the national regulatory body on the use of atomic and nuclear energy, for regulating and accrediting TLD dose monitoring services in the country. He established the radiation protection program at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSHRC) which was implemented by Department Chairmen and supervisors having control on the implementation. He was also the Project Manager of Saad Specialist Hospital for the Cyclotron and Oncology projects, managing, supervising and issuing management decisions.

He is a knowledgeable medical/health physicist. He developed and became the sole consultant on patient and staff dose assessment. He initiated the development of the computerized database system for personal doses the first in Saudi Arabia. As the first Radiation Safety Officer in Saudi Arabia, he developed the standards for radiation protection of patients and workers and the environment through the computerized air monitoring system. He established the standard protocols for radiation safety in the first and biggest cyclotron facility of Saudi Arabia being operated by KFSHRC. He developed innovations and new approaches in medical and health physics.

Dr. Al-Haj is an educator in the field of medical and health physics. He developed training programs for staff, members of the public and international fellows at KFSHRC in the areas of radiation physics, dosimetry and radiation protection. He is an outstanding conference guest speaker of various national organizations, hospital institutions, Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Defense and KACST. He reviewed and evaluated the MSc degree program curriculum and research project proposals submitted to King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals, Riyadh. He is also a professorial lecturer of King Saud University. He was also selected as a thesis adviser of a masteral degree candidate from the Karolinska University in Sweden and currently a research adviser of a doctoral candidate at the Sydney University in Australia. He organized national and regional training courses on radiation protection in medicine.

Dr .Al-Haj is a well-known researcher in field of medical and health physics. He was given approval for the IAEA coordinated research on patient safety in interventional radiology (“Establishment of a Core of Expertise on Radiation Protection for Patient Safety in Interventional Radiology”) and co-researcher in the IAEA coordinated research on Hp(10) measurements. He established the established the first reference dose levels in Interventional Radiology and pediatric CT. He published more than 20 technical papers in international journals some of which were orally presented or presented as poster in international conferences and meetings.