Elias Karim Shaya, MD

Provider is directly employed by MedStar Health

Elias K. Shaya, MD, serves as the MedStar North Regional Medical Director and Senior Associate Executive Director for Behavioral Health Services at MedStar Health, the largest healthcare system in the Baltimore-Washington region.

Dr. Shaya is a Past President and Council Chair of the Maryland Psychiatric Society.

In addition to his administrative and leadership responsibilities, he maintains an active clinical practice, specializing in geriatric psychiatry, dementia, and mood disorders. He holds part-time faculty appointments in Radiology and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University and in Health Sciences at the George Washington University.

Dr. Shaya, one of the first clinicians in the country to receive dual training in psychiatry and nuclear medicine, has experience using functional brain imaging technologies, especially Positron Emission Tomography, to study neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr. Shaya's other research and interests include geriatric and neuropsychiatry, mood disorders, as well as electronic health records and innovations in care delivery, clinical documentation, CPT coding & payment models. His work has been published in journals such as Neuropsychopharmacology, The American Journal of Psychiatry, and The Journal of Neurochemistry, and he is a contributing author of the book "The Everything Health Guide to Schizophrenia: The latest information on treatment, medication, and coping strategies."
 
In addition to his clinical, research, and academic pursuits, Dr. Shaya serves on the Board of Directors of the MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry, and is Chairman of the Board for Drug-Free Lebanon, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping treatment centers in Lebanon provide preventive care and treatment for those afflicted with addictions.

Prior to joining MedStar, he was in private practice and early in his career, he was a researcher at Johns Hopkins University and the National Institutes of Health, where he served as a Senior Fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He is a graduate of The American University in Beirut, Lebanon, and he completed his internship and residency at Emory University Affiliated Hospitals in Atlanta, GA, followed by a fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He is board certified in General and Geriatric Psychiatry. He also is certified in Office-Based Treatment of Opioid Dependence with Buprenorphine.

Dr. Shaya has been a regularly invited speaker at local, national, and international meetings as well as regular appearances and interviews on TV, radio, and in print media.

Dr. Shaya has been recognized in Baltimore Magazine's "Top Doctors" and "Guide to America's Top Psychiatrists" for several years in a row and he is the recipient of several local and national awards, honors, and recognitions including:

• The Distinguished Fellowship Award of the American Psychiatric Association
• The Exemplary Psychiatrist Award of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)