Breaking boundaries: Lebanon's Professor Sami Richa's 'historic' election to the French National Academy of Medicine

Professor Sami Richa, the head of the Psychiatric department of Hotel-Dieu de France in Beirut, has become the first Lebanese psychiatrist to be elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine in France since its establishment nearly 200 years ago.

Richa was unanimously elected as a corresponding member of the Academy within the "Medicine and Society" department of the National Academy of Medicine. Founded in 1820, it is France's foremost body of physicians.

The Academy works to gather medical expertise and enhance France's global reputation in healthcare.

The French government often requests reports and positions on medical topics from it, making the opinions it provides a reference point.

Richa, 54 years old, founded the Department of Psychiatry at Hotel-Dieu de France hospital in Beirut and led it for 12 years. He is also a member of the Lebanese National Advisory Committee for the Ethics of Health and Life Sciences.

Richa founded the "Association Francophone pour Les Maladies Mentaux" (AFMM) and has about 150 scientific articles published in leading specialized journals.

His next book, "12 cas cliniques en éthique psychiatrique" ("12 Clinical Cases in Psychiatric Ethics"), will be published in France and Lebanon in October.