Dr. Arabi is recognized leader in critical care research and in the area of randomized controlled trial sepsis, mechanical ventilation, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERs CoV) research. He has lead multiple randomized controlled trials that were published in the leading medical journals. He has conducted the PREVENT trial (“Prophylaxis of Thromboembolism in Critically Ill Patients Using Combined Intermittent Pneumatic Compression and Pharmacologic Prophylaxis versus Pharmacologic Prophylaxis Alone: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial”), MIRACLE trial (“MERS-CoV Infection Treated with a Combination of Lopinavir/Ritonavir and Interferon Beta 1B: A Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Randomized”) PERMIT trial (The Impact of Permissive Underfeeding versus Target Enteral Feeding on Mortality and Morbidity in Adult Critically Ill Patients: a Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial”), all published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NJEM).
He collaborated with the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS), and the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group (CCCTG) on multiple major controlled trials. He is the co-investigator in the REMAP-CAP (“Randomized, embedded, multifactorial adaptive platform trial for community – acquired pneumonia (REMAP-CAP) trial. Dr. Arabi leadership has been recognized in multiple awards; including the Saudi Universities Excellence Award in Scientific Productivity per Web of Science Medical Sciences and Ministry of Health Pioneer Research Award (2019), Distinguished Scientist Award from Almarai (2017), Distinguished Scientist Award from Almarai Award for Innovation (2017), 2 nd Annual Lifetime Achievement Award from the Saudi Critical Care Society (SCCS) (2013), Bary A. Shapiro Memorial Award for Excellence in Critical Care Management, Society of Critical Care Medicine, USA (2011).
He has published over 450 peer-reviewed journals and has cited more than 43,000 times with H index of 92 and I index of 299. He is currently the chair of the Saudi Critical Care Trials Group (SCCTG). He has been working on building capacity in critical care research through the conduction of the BASIC Research Course for Critical Care and the BASIC Research Coordination Course