Balighian earned his medical degree at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He completed his residency in pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.He has received the Frederick J. Heldrich Medical Student Teaching Award at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and the Alexander "Buck" Schaffer Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Teaching of House Officers given by the Institute for Excellence in Education at Johns Hopkins. He also has been recognized as a Top Doctor by Baltimore magazine.