Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Rebuilding Syria’s Healthcare System with Dr. Aref Rifai of SAMS

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Rebuilding Syria’s Healthcare System with Dr. Aref Rifai of SAMS · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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Every year, Becker's annual meeting brings health care
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Join us April 13 through the sixteenth.
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Hi. My name is Paige Twinter. I'm an
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assistant editor here at Becker's Healthcare.
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I am so, so honored to be joined
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today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast by doctor
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Arif Rafai,
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president at SAMS
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Health.
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I'll go ahead and, you know, send it
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over to you of can you doctor Rafai,
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can you please introduce yourself and tell us
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a bit about SAMS?
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Okay.
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I am Arik Fryfai. I'm an ophthalmology,
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physician,
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a retina specialist, in Pensacola, Florida.
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I'm also the president of the Syrian American
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Medical,
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Society, SAMS.
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It's a society that has more than 1,500,
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members,
1:18
based here in The US, has been providing,
1:21
medical relief
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to Syria,
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since, 2012,
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since the beginning of the revolution.
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And,
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prior to the liberation,
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on any particular day in Northwest Syria,
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more than 10,000 services would be delivered all
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across,
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Northwest, Syria to a population of about 6,000,000.
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Over every year, we were, delivering almost more
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than 3,000,000
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medical services
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in 13 hospitals,
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across Northwest Syria, prior to the liberation of
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Syria.
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And since the liberation,
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the work, has actually,
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quadrupled,
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as, all of Syria has been liberated. And
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now Sam's,
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is,
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almost, all across all provinces,
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inside Syria,
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delivering care.
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I believe before 2012,
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SAMS,
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was created in 1998,
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right, as a educational medical society for Syrian
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American
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professionals in The US. Correct?
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Correct. Correct. In 1998,
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the the organization
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was was, created mostly for educational purposes where
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conferences were being held overseas,
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in Syria
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with some participation
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from the,
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diaspora physicians,
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in The US. But the the work of
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Sam's really came to to to the highlight,
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during the time of the Syrian revolution in
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which a lot of responsibilities,
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were given to Sam's,
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through,
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trust and support by international,
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donors,
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from, US State Department, USAID,
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to,
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United Nations, to European
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governments,
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a lot of,
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aid
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grants were given to Sam's. And, you know,
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the work,
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on the ground,
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significantly,
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increased,
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all across, Syria where we did have field
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hospitals.
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Also, part of our work was, advocacy
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and providing,
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testimony
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to some of the atrocities that have taken
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place, including the chemical,
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weapon used in in Algotta,
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suburb, rural Damascus,
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and also in,
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Sarakib and and.
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So, we,
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Sam's
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physicians,
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did go and testify in front of the
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UN Security Council during that period.
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So
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Sam's is just
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in a lot bigger than it has been.
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A lot of,
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I believe, more than 20 chapters in The
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US has just grown and grown and grown.
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Can you share maybe, like, two to three
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priorities that you've set for yourself,
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and for Sam's? You just became president
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last summer, right, in July 2025? Yeah. Correct.
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So so I was I was, on the
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board of, the the Sam's as the treasurer,
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and then in July 20,
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'25, I became the the the president of
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the, the society.
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But, yes, Sam's has grown significantly.
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We quadrupled the number of the members, since
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the liberation,
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December 2024 after liberation of, Syria.
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And now the whole,
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Syria in its geography and its 13 provinces,
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is available for us to be able to
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to, to operate,
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over there.
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I'll give you kind of, you know, in
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in general, you know, our core strategic objectives,
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as Sam's. What we are looking for, currently
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is to,
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play a major role in elevating the quality
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of medical care that is being provided inside
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Syria
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to standardize that, the clinical practice,
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have high impact,
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on the care that is being delivered, and
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also
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work on the training future generation of a
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physician,
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expand the the workforce in between physician, nurses,
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and allied health.
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Also, at times, we do address the unmet,
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urgent, medical needs or health crisis. You know,
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I'll give you example with the liberation of
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the Eastern part of Syria. Recently,
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I was there, one week prior to the
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liberation of, Rokhan Der Zor. We visited the
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the hospitals over there,
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met with the, officials,
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did address the urgent health needs, and and
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were able to to provide some and especially
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also on the side as well as the
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refugees. There are still
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more than 1,000,000 people that live in, refugee
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camps and in tents inside, Syria.
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We also would like to,
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work on strengthening
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the medical education and training of the,
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medical,
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students,
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the residents
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so that we prepare for the future
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generation of of, Syrian physicians.
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And then four,
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we probably prioritize,
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providing,
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specialized
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care in centers of excellence
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that only Sam's will be able to, provide.
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Advanced cardiology services, advanced oncology
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care. We do provide
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certain surgeries that no one else does, cochlear
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implants,
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for
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deaf kids, retina surgery.
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So those are the things that, SANS is
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looking into providing.
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Obviously,
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leaning on your experience as a,
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an, ophthalmologist,
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right, to probably build
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those, services more. Of those four priorities,
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which one do you think will be the
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hardest?
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Very good,
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question.
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Actually,
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probably working very hard into
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a training and providing medical education for the
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future, Syrian physicians. This would be the
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most difficult and will provide the,
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the highest impact,
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that Sams would be able to participate in
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elevating
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the, medical,
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care.
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The other thing is,
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visiting,
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Syria's,
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hospitals, clinics.
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Unfortunately, the, the Syrian regime has left,
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the infrastructure
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in such a dilapidated,
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destroyed,
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fashion
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That to try to build rebuild the health
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care system
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is gonna be a monumental
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task in between the structures,
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in between the,
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the equipment,
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in between having the staff the trained staff,
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strengthening the health care system.
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Those are two
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gigantic
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tasks, and that's where the challenge that we
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do look at, facing Syria.
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And for Sam's,
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where do you see the biggest opportunity for
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growth
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in, let's say, just 2026,
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just this year?
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Well,
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currently,
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we are, functioning,
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as a, you know, medical relief that is
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cooperating,
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with the, Ministry of Health and trying to
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see the unmet need,
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certain,
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areas, that they do require, some, you know,
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assistance.
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So this is one opportunity. The other one
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is we,
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are expanding
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on our,
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centers of excellence. So I'll give you example.
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In few weeks, we will be,
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launching
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a radiation oncology center,
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in Hama.
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It has been probably almost, twelve months to
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get it prepared, to get the staff, to
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get the radiation oncologist,
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the physicist.
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That is a huge
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center that will be servicing probably about five
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to 6,000,000,
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people
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in Syria.
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We, basically look at that as a great
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opportunity
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to showcase how,
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Syrian
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American physicians will be able to, to assist
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in,
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delivering specialized
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care in Syria. That is one one opportunity.
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The second one is,
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in Idlib.
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We do have an advanced,
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cardiac center that is providing right now
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advanced
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cardiac intervention,
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repair of, structural
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heart defects through
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nonsurgical,
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interventions,
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doing minimally invasive,
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cardiac surgery, doing pediatric surgery.
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This is, something that Sam's is,
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working on providing that service. And also on
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top of that, we do have physicians
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that come to those,
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centers and actually participate. The third one
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is Sam's does have an educational arm called
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Sam's Institute.
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We do have a simulation lab that we
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constantly,
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train,
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physicians,
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medical student,
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residents, and then we do participate
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in a lot of conferences,
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medical education,
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initiatives Syria.
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So
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those fall, along, what we do. In
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our last few minutes here, is there anything
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in particular you'd really like to share with
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other health care leaders, you know, listening to
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this podcast?
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Any statement you'd like to share?
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I will, yeah, I will take that, opportunity
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to to, just basically,
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talk about, Sam's,
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experience here from The US,
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has been recognized by a lot of the,
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major player stakeholders,
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in The US.
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So,
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we recently,
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did have,
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certain,
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health care systems,
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trust Sam's by giving major donations. I would
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like to thank, you know, through this, AdventHealth,
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Ascension Health,
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Orlando Health,
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in which they were having a lot of
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renovation in their major hospitals, and they donated
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to us. You know? One hospital donated more
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than 300 hospital beds.
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They're basically going through renovation, and they handed
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functioning hospital beds. AdventHealth has been giving us,
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they gave us more than a 120
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intensive care unit specialized
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beds.
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And those came in very handy because they
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were all put in containers and were shipped
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overseas. And right now, they are on the
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ground,
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you know, in, public sector hospitals,
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providing and assisting in the health care of,
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of the patients on top of
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long list
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of donations in consumables. So I'll give you
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an example. AmericaCare is a big organization that
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does provide medications.
12:21
In 2025,
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Sam's shipped more than 70 containers
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from The US
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all the way across overseas, and those containers
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entered Syria with
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medications,
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donations,
12:37
equipments,
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beds, consumables, ventilators, anesthesia machines. All of that
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has been
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donated by, partners here in The US that
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did trust,
12:50
Sam's that we will be able to,
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to manage that. So, yes,
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and this this did not come, you know,
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out of a vacuum. It's just basically Sam's
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constant effort to advocate,
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attend meeting, reach out to partners
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to, basically,
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advocate on behalf of the Syrian,
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population,
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on the Syrian communities, the need the dire
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need for,
13:15
support.
13:16
We,
13:17
basically,
13:18
with the election of, president Trump,
13:22
yes, they did support. They did say, let's
13:25
give the Syrian people a chance. But the
13:28
amount of donations through USAID,
13:30
like all other international organization, has,
13:34
gone down a little bit, but
13:36
they still recognize that Syria is a special
13:38
case that they would like to, continue to
13:41
support and give give a chance. And also
13:44
the same thing goes for secretary Marco Rubio,
13:48
that we still have some grants to the
13:50
US state department.
13:52
So, just to to for for your listeners
13:54
to, to to let you know that, yes,
13:56
Sam's,
13:57
as a as an organization,
13:59
we do have an arm that goes and
14:01
advocate this coming,
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Friday. I'm gonna be going to Washington DC
14:06
to one of those think tanks to to
14:08
attend a roundtable.
14:10
We'll be asked a lot of questions about
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what is going on on the ground, what
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is the future of the health care in
14:16
Syria, and just basically they like to hear.
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Since the liberation of Syria last year, 2025,
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I've been to Syria 11 times. Every four
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to five weeks, I go for about a
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week. I go all across Syria, meet officials
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over there, visit hospitals, visit centers,
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and try to see what what we can
14:34
do to,
14:35
basically,
14:36
support the health care system in Syria.
14:38
Well, thank you so much for
14:40
joining the Becker's health care podcast and, you
14:43
know, sharing these updates on the Syrian American
14:45
Medical Society or SAMS. Thank you so much.
14:48
Thank you very much. Thank you very much
14:50
for giving me the opportunity to to talk
14:52
about,
14:53
Syrian American Medical Society, SAMS. And, I'll be
14:57
very happy in the future if you do
14:58
need me to,
15:00
you know, give you updates.
15:02
I will I will, you know, be happy
15:04
and, privileged to to do that.