Dr. Shahem Kawji, MD

Dr. Shahem Kawji is an ophthalmologist specialising in diseases and surgery of the retina and vitreous. He graduated from the University of Aleppo Faculty of Medicine in 2000, then trained in internal medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Doheny Eye Institute, University of Southern California.

He went on to complete his ophthalmology residency at Indiana University School of Medicine, followed by a fellowship in retina and vitreous surgery at the University of Virginia, where he then served as Clinical Instructor of Ophthalmology. He is certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology and holds an active California physician and surgeon licence.

In 2015 he founded Newport Retina in Newport Beach, California, where he is medical director, and he chairs the Department of Ophthalmology, ENT and Oral Maxillofacial Surgery at Hoag Hospital. He serves as principal or sub-investigator in clinical trials of treatments for age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, and has published research in ophthalmology.