Dr. Cheema is a distinguished physician-scientist with expertise in basic sciences, translational, and clinical research. He currently serves as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at George Mason University and the Chief Medical Officer of Vianova, a digital healthcare AI company focused on virtual care management.In addition to these roles, Dr. Cheema is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Clinical Sciences at the University of Houston College of Medicine.Previously, Dr. Cheema was the Director of Research at HCA Research Institute's Gulf Coast Division, overseeing clinical research across 16 hospitals in Texas. He also served as the Director of Research and Innovations and Assistant Professor in the Division of Cardiothoracic Transplantation at Baylor College of Medicine’s Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, where he built a robust research program with over $4 million in grant funding.Dr. Cheema's leadership extends to the Aegis Cardiovascular Research Foundation and the University of Maryland, where he was Director of Clinical Research and Innovations & Assistant Professor of Cardiac Surgery, overseeing recruitment for approximately three dozen clinical trials. He earned his M.B.B.S. from The Aga Khan University, followed by a clinical research fellowship in heart transplantation at the Robert Van Kampen Heart Transplant Resource Center at Loyola University. His post-doctoral research fellowships were completed at Columbia University, where he also served as Associate Research Scientist and Director of the Cardiopulmonary Tissue Repository. During his tenure at Columbia, Dr. Cheema was elected as University Senator (2009-11), representing ~ 4,000 researchers on certain important senate committees.Dr. Cheema is a prolific author with over 150 scientific manuscripts and more than 225 abstracts. His research has been presented globally and published in high-impact journals such as The Lancet, PNAS, JCI, Circulation, BMJ, World Journal of Surgery, JTCVS, The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, EJCTS, JHLT, Circulation Heart Failure, and Circulation Research. He is a reviewer for several scholarly journals and has written multiple book chapters. Over the course of his career, Dr. Cheema has garnered over $8 million in cumulative funding from both federal and non-governmental agencies. With ~8,000 citations to his published research and an h-index of 40, Dr. Cheema is a highly regarded academician. He is actively involved in numerous professional organizations and participates in academic, philanthropic, and community initiatives.