Biography

Abdo Asmar, MD, is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Central Florida, College of Medicine. He is a founding faculty member and serves as the Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program for the UCF/HCA GME consortium (Greater Orlando), as well as Vice Chair of Graduate Medical Education. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Cook County (Stroger) Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, where he also served as Chief Resident. He then completed his nephrology fellowship training at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He is a Designated Clinical Specialist in Hypertension by the American Society of Hypertension.

Dr. Asmar practices medicine at the Orlando Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center and UCF Health. His clinical interests are varied and include resistant hypertension, renal stones, and acid-base and electrolyte disorders. An award-winning physician educator at the college, Dr. Asmar has been recognized as one of Orlando’s Top Physicians several years in a row. Dr. Asmar previously served as Module Director for the S-4: GI/Renal module, and continues to develop content relevant to his specialty across the MD Program. He also teaches renal topics in the medical clerkship program. Dr. Asmar’s academic interest is focused on education and professional development across the continuum of medical education. His goal as an educator is to empower learners, foster critical thinking, and infuse a desire for lifelong learning. He aims to balance this approach with a focus on student wellbeing and helping students find meaning in the workplace.

Dr. Asmar is a member of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 Interdisciplinary Review Committee and previously served on the National Kidney Foundation of Florida Board of Directors. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), and the National Kidney Foundation. As a member of the ASN, he served on the workforce committee and on the William and Sandra Bennett Clinical Scholars Review Committee. Dr. Asmar was a member of the editorial board for the American Journal of Kidney Disease, served on USMLE Materials Development Committee for Step 1. His numerous affiliations and expertise has led to many invitations to present on a variety of medical education topics for medical and research conferences both nationally and internationally.

Publications

Recent Peer-Reviewed Publications:

1. Borgan S M, Romeus L, Rahman S, Asmar A. (February 04, 2020) Internal Medicine Residents and the Practice of Defensive Medicine: A Pilot Study Across Three Internal Medicine Residency Programs. Cureus 12(2): e6876. DOI 10.7759/cureus.6876
2. Kauffman CA, Derazin M, Asmar A, Kibble JD. Patterns of medical student engagement in a second-year pathophysiology course: relationship to USMLE Step 1 performance. Adv Physiol Educ. 2019;43(4):512–518.
3. Sozio SM, Pivert KA, Shah HH, Asmar A et al. Increasing Medical Student Interest in Nephrology. Am J Nephrol. 2019;50(1):4–10.
4. Christine A. Kauffman, Megan Derazin, Abdo Asmar, and Jonathan D. Kibble. Relationship between classroom attendance and examination performance in a second-year medical pathophysiology class. Adv Physiol Educ 42: 593–598, 2018;
5. Juan C. Cendán; Analia Castiglioni; Teresa R. Johnson; Mike Eakins; Marcia L. Verduin; Abdo Asmar; David Metcalf; Caridad Hernandez. Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of the Impact of Adoption of a Mobile Application for the Assessment of Professionalism in Medical Trainees. Academic Medicine. 92(11S):S33–S42, NOV 2017.
6. Kibble JD, Bellew C, Asmar A, Barkley L. Team-based learning in large enrollment classes. Adv Physiol Educ 40: 435–442, 2016; doi:10.1152/advan.00095.2016.
7. Laurel Gorman, Analia Castiglioni, Caridad Hernandez, Abdo Asmar, Juan Cendan, David Harris. Using Preclinical High-Fidelity Medical Simulations to Integrate Pharmacology and Physiology with Clinical Sciences. Sci.Educ.October 2015. DOI 10.1007/s40670-015-0173-z
8. Jaclyn Reinemann, Kirstin LaBell, Christine Bellew, Abdo Asmar, Juan Cendan, David M. Harris. Integration and Improvement of Teamwork Skills in First Year Medical Students by Using Physiology-Based High Fidelity Patient Simulations. Med.Sci.Educ.October 2015. DOI 10.1007/s40670-015-0161
9. Christin Giordano, Olga Karasik, Kelli King-Morris, and Abdo Asmar. Uric Acid as a Marker of Kidney Disease: Review of the Current Literature, Disease Markers, vol. 2015, Article ID 382918, 6 pages, 2015. doi:10.1155/2015/382918.
10. Thompson JC, Castiglioni A, Johnson EN, Asmar A, Jones WS. Lapses in Professionalism During Residency Training: A Suggested Approach. Academic Internal Medicine Insight I 2014 I 12:3: 17-19.