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Oladipo A. Alao, MD, MPH

Posted December 2007

Oladipo Alao is Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Columbia University and the HIV Medical Director at Harlem Hospital Center. He completed his residency at Harlem Hospital in 2001 and was an infectious diseases fellow there until 2003. Since 2003, he has overseen the medical and administrative services at Harlem, and leads the quality improvement team. He took on the challenge of leading a clinic that serves a large, complex population of not only adult but also pediatric and adolescent patients. While he has achieved notice for his clinic leadership and training of medical staff, Dr. Alao has also been instrumental in introducing new approaches to caring for patients with HIV/AIDS.

One of these involved introducing a program called Patient Self-Management to help patients with chronic diseases such as HIV/AIDS reach their goals toward self-improvement and a better quality of life. While others may plead being too busy, Dr. Alao and his clinic team participated in a national initiative to improve the ability of patients and their families to undertake the day-to-day management of medication regimens and finding ways to identify and deal with specific health concerns. Harlem Hospital Center began the self-managed support approach in the Family-Centered HIV program. At each visit, the patient reviews goals with the provider, setting an action plan that is behavior-specific and attainable in health improvement terms. Dr. Alao recognized this approach could be successful because it empowers patients who set their own goals, with providers encouraging and reinforcing the process.

Dr. Alao organized an interdisciplinary team approach to improving patient retention, and Harlem was one of the first Health and Hospital Corporation facilities to address this critical issue by linking patient adherence to medical appointments with improved health outcomes. His clinical strategies mark him as a committed physician addressing the needs of HIV patients in the 21st century.

Dr. Alao, a native Nigerian, received his MD degree from the University of Ibadan and his MPH in Epidemiology at Columbia. His publications address a range of topics from causes of chest pain, cryptococcal meningitis, to retention in care. Dr. Alao has been a member of the Quality of Care Advisory Committee at the AIDS Institute and has participated in local, national, and international quality improvement initiatives.