Alexander Y. Walley, MD
Professor, Medicine
Biography
Dr Walley is Professor of Medicine and an addiction expert at Boston Medical Center and Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine focused on the medical complications of substance use, specifically HIV and overdose. Dr Walley has conducted multiple studies related to the opioid crisis and the integration of addiction specialty care and general medical care. He has served as PI on a CDC-SAMHSA-Epi-AID investigation of the surge in fentanyl-related overdose, a CDC-funded study of the Massachusetts community naloxone program which demonstrated community-level reductions in overdose death rates, and a SAMHSA-funded program that integrated addiction treatment into the clinical care of people with/at risk for HIV. He is principal investigator for CDC and NIH funded studies of community overdose interventions. For the NIH-funded HEALing Communities Study – Massachusetts, he served as the Care Continuum Core Director 2019-2022. He has worked as Co-I with addiction, overdose, and HIV expertise on NIDA and NIAAA-funded clinical trials and cohort studies.
Dr. Walley is a founding director of the Grayken Addiction Medicine Fellowship. From 2011 to 2022, 20 addiction specialists graduated, 6 of whom serve as directors for addiction medicine fellowships, 13 are faculty at medical schools, 9 at Boston University School of Medicine. He was a founding board member and treasurer of the Addiction Medicine Fellowship Director’s Association 2016-2019 and American College of Academic Addiction Medicine (ACAAM) starting in 2019. He is currently the president-elect for ACAAM. With his mentor, Dr. Jeffrey Samet, he is multi-PI on the NIDA-funded R25 Clinical Addiction Research and Education Program, which produces the Chief Resident and Fellow Immersion Training programs.
Dr. Walley provides primary care and addiction medicine consultations in the HIV primary care clinic at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine/BMC. He founded BMC’s inpatient Addiction Consult Service in 2015 and the Faster Paths low-barrier access substance use clinic in 2016. He previously was a site medical director for opioid treatment programs in Boston from 2007 to 2016. He serves as the medical director for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Bureau of Substance Addiction Services and the Overdose Prevention Program. Since 2007, the MDPH program has trained and equipped over 100,000 people in Massachusetts’s communities with naloxone rescue kits, including people at-risk for overdose and their social networks.
Other Positions
- Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research, Boston University
- Faculty, Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit, Medicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
- Courtesy Staff Privileges, Medicine, Boston Medical Center
Websites
- BU Profile
- Clinical Addiction Research and Education (CARE) Unit
- Grayken Fellowship in Addiction Medicine
- Fellow Immersion Training Program in Addiction Medicine
- Boston Medical Center Provider Profile
- Prescribe to Prevent
- PRONTO Post-Overdose Outreach
- Alex Walley Twitter Account
- Grayken Fellowship in Addiction Medicine Twitter
Education
- Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, MD
- Boston University School of Public Health, MSc
- Harvard College, AB
Publications
- Published on 12/1/2023
Canfield J, Truong V, Bereznicka A, Bridden C, Liebschutz J, Alford DP, Saitz R, Samet JH, Walley AY, Lunze K. Evaluation of a student clinical research education program in addiction medicine. Ann Med. 2023 Dec; 55(1):361-370. PMID: 36629696.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/29/2023
McCann NC, McMahan VM, Smith R, Majeski A, Johns SL, Kosakowski S, Wolfe S, Brennan S, Robinson M, Coffin PO, Walley AY. Feasibility and acceptability of a timeline follow-back method to assess opioid use, non-fatal overdose, and substance use disorder treatment. Addict Behav. 2023 Sep 29; 148:107873. PMID: 37801804.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/13/2023
Kimmel SD, Xuan Z, Yan S, Lambert AM, Formica SW, Green TC, Carroll JJ, Bagley SM, Rosenbloom D, Beletsky L, Walley AY. Characteristics of post-overdose outreach programs and municipal-level opioid overdose in Massachusetts. Int J Drug Policy. 2023 Sep 13; 120:104164. PMID: 37713939.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/5/2023
Flam-Ross JM, Marsh E, Weitz M, Savinkina A, Schackman BR, Wang J, Madushani RWMA, Morgan JR, Barocas JA, Walley AY, Chrysanthopoulou SA, Linas BP, Assoumou SA. Economic Evaluation of Extended-Release Buprenorphine for Persons With Opioid Use Disorder. JAMA Netw Open. 2023 Sep 05; 6(9):e2329583. PMID: 37703018.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/28/2023
Zang X, Walley AY, Chatterjee A, Kimmel SD, Morgan JR, Murphy SM, Linas BP, Nolen S, Reilly B, Urquhart C, Schackman BR, Marshall BDL. Changes to opioid overdose deaths and community naloxone access among Black, Hispanic and White people from 2016 to 2021 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: An interrupted time-series analysis in Massachusetts, USA. Addiction. 2023 Aug 28. PMID: 37640687.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/23/2023
Pustz J, Srinivasan S, Shrestha S, Larochelle MR, Walley AY, Samet JH, Babakhanlou-Chase H, Carpenter JF, Stopka TJ. Applied risk mapping and spatial analysis of address-level decedent data to inform opioid overdose interventions: The Massachusetts HEALing Communities Study. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2023 Oct 01; 251:110947. PMID: 37666091.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/16/2023
Carroll JJ, Cummins ER, Formica SW, Green TC, Bagley SM, Beletsky L, Rosenbloom D, Xuan Z, Walley AY. The police paradox: A qualitative study of post-overdose outreach program implementation through public health-public safety partnerships in Massachusetts. Int J Drug Policy. 2023 Aug 16; 120:104160. PMID: 37597344.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 7/29/2023
Paradise RK, Desmarais J, O'Malley SE, Hoyos-Cespedes A, Nurani A, Walley AY, Clarke J, Taylor S, Dooley D, Bazzi AR, Kimmel SD. Perspectives and recommendations of opioid overdose survivors experiencing unsheltered homelessness on housing, overdose, and substance use treatment in Boston, MA. Int J Drug Policy. 2023 Sep; 119:104127. PMID: 37523844.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 7/5/2023
Chatterjee A, Yan S, Lambert A, Morgan JR, Green TC, Jeng PJ, Jalali A, Xuan Z, Krieger M, Marshall BDL, Walley AY, Murphy SM. Comparison of a national commercial pharmacy naloxone data source to state and city pharmacy naloxone data sources-Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York City, 2013-2019. Health Serv Res. 2023 Oct; 58(5):1141-1150. PMID: 37408299.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/6/2023
Friedmann PD, Jawa R, Wilson D, Ramsey SE, Hoskinson R, McKenzie M, Walley AY, Green TC, Bratberg J, Rich JD. Prescribe to Save Lives: An Intervention to Increase Naloxone Prescribing Among HIV Clinicians. J Addict Med. 2023 Jun 06. PMID: 37279076.
Read at: PubMed
View 204 more publications: View full profile at BUMC