 He worked professionally as a mental health doctor and was a consultant psychiatrist and Director of Health for Karbala before being appointed to the post of Health Minister.In January 2008 he reported the results of the "Iraq Family Health Survey" of 9,345 households across Iraq which was carried out in 2006 and 2007 for the World Health Organization and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.It estimated that there had been 151,000 deaths from violence (95% uncertainty range, 104,000 to 223,000) from March 2003 through June 2006.