Maha Kaissi, MD, MHPE, FAAP

Biography

Maha Kaissi, MD, MHPE, FAAP, is a board-certified physician specializing in pediatric hospital medicine. She currently serves as an assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and practices as a pediatric hospitalist at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital. Dr. Kaissi provides comprehensive inpatient care to children with a wide range of acute, chronic, and medically complex conditions. She is deeply committed to evidence-based, family-centered care, partnering with interdisciplinary teams to optimize outcomes for her patients.

She earned her Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and went on to complete her pediatric residency and chief residency at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Following residency, she completed a pediatric hospital medicine fellowship at the University of Rochester (2020–2022) and earned a Master’s in Health Professions Education during the same period. Dr. Kaissi is double board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric hospital medicine by the American Board of Pediatrics.

Dr. Kaissi’s clinical and scholarly interests focus on resident wellbeing, debriefing, resident medical education, quality improvement, and physician wellness. Notably, she led a quality improvement (QI) initiative to decrease medication reconciliation errors upon admission for children with medical complexity, which she presented at multiple national and local conferences. She is currently implementing a pediatric residency debrief team at UTHealth Houston and leading a QI initiative to increase the frequency of debriefs for pediatric residents due to difficult events on the pediatric hospital medicine floors.

In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Kaissi is passionate about medical education. As core faculty, she mentors medical students, residents, and fellows and guides them in scholarship, QI projects, and honing clinical teaching skills. She has received accolades such as the NICU Outstanding Resident Award (2018) and is active in scholarly dissemination, having published in Hospital Pediatrics and authored a chapter in the most recent edition of Pocket Pediatrics, as well as presented multiple times at national and international conferences.