Our Board of Directors

The Patient Education Institute (PEI) is a privately-held company. Our Board of Directors includes:

Mohamad A. Ajam, Ph.D.

Dr. Mohamad (Moe) Ajam is President and Chairman of the Board of the Patient Education Institute. He has more than 25 years of experience developing and marketing educational and training software.

Dr. Ajam received his BS degree in Biology in 1982 and a Programming Degree in 1984 from the American University of Beirut. He moved to the USA in 1984 and received his Ph.D. in Computer-Based Instruction from the University of Iowa in 1990. He is a board member in several companies and a national speaker on issues related to health literacy, e-learning, and software start-up companies.

From 1985 to 1989, Dr. Ajam was Senior Instructional Designer at the Center for Educational Experimentation, Development and Evaluation (CEEDE). CEEDE developed educational software for schools and colleges. In his first three years at CEEDE, Dr. Ajam managed projects involving the translation of educational software to several languages. In his final two years in the position, Dr. Ajam managed all software development projects. In August of 1989, Profiles Corporation acquired CEEDE.

From 1989 to 1991, Dr. Ajam was Project Manager at Profiles Corp., training employees on maintaining the software acquired from CEEDE. Profiles (later known as Buckle Down Publishing) was acquired by Haights Cross Communications.

In April of 1991, Dr. Ajam managed another start-up software company, the Police Law Institute. Dr. Ajam developed police training software and made the company the first to provide online police training. He was the first to successfully market subscription-based software services for managing risk through the documentation of training and education. Dr. Ajam left the Police Law Institute in April of 1995, to found the Patient Education Institute. The Police Law Institute was later acquired by Oliver and Associates.

Dr. Ajam continues to serve as the President and Chairman of the Board of the Patient Education Institute, a successful healthcare informatics company. Its flagship product, X-Plain™, is used by more than 12 million users every year, and has been translated to many languages.

Souheil F. Haddad, M.D.

Dr. Souheil Haddad is co-founder, Medical Director and member of the Board of Directors of PEI. While a practicing neurosurgeon at the Neurosurgical Clinic of Bloomington, Indiana, since 1992, Dr. Haddad continues to devote more than 25 hours per week directing all medical editorial activities, coordinating the Medical Advisory Board, and does quality control on all published medical materials.

Dr. Haddad received his BS and MD degrees from the American University of Beirut in 1983 and 1986, respectively. He received his neurosurgical training at the University of Iowa from 1986 to 1992. He is a Diplomat of the American Board of Neurosurgery and member of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society, American Medical Association, American Association of Neurological Surgery, Congress of Neurological Surgeons and Indiana State Medical Association.

Dean Gesme, M.D., F.A.C.P.

Dr. Dean H. Gesme, Jr. is a medical oncologist in private practice. He completed medical training at the University of Iowa in 1977, followed by an internal medicine residency in San Francisco and a medical oncology fellowship at the University of Minnesota. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology and Medical Management.

Dr. Gesme has been the Assistant Principal Investigator for the Cedar Rapids CCOP, under which community cancer research is conducted through a multi-million dollar National Cancer Institute Grant; with over 1,000 patients in the area having participated in NCI sponsored clinical research trials.

Dr. Gesme serves as President of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, Silver Springs, Maryland, and is the Chairperson of the Bylaws Committee for the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is the Oncology Representative on the AMA CPT Advisory Panel dealing with physician coding and payment issues.

Dr. Gesme is past President of the Iowa Division of the American Cancer Society and has served on the Board of Directors for the National Cancer Society Organization at both the local and state levels. He serves on several other local and national boards of directors for business and healthcare organizations.

Dr. Gesme has been engaged in patient and physician education efforts for over 10 years and also engages in developing assessment and education tools dealing with quality cancer care from the perspective of the patient.