Prof. Arabi obtained his Internal Medicine Training then he was the Chief Medical Resident at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA (1992-1995). He obtained pulmonary and critical care training at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA (1995-1998). He is currently the Chairman of the Intensive Care Department, the Medical Director, Respiratory Services and Professor, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center. 

He is currently the principal investigator/co-investigator on several multicenter randomized controlled trials. He has been involved in MERS and COVID-19 research. He has >300 publications including articles in leading medical journals. He is currently a Section Editor for Intensive Care Medicine on the Editorial Boards of several journals.

He received multiple grants and awards including the Barry A. Shapiro Memorial Award for Excellence in Critical Care Management, Society of Critical Care Medicine, USA (2011).​​