Alexander Y. Walley MD
Professor, General Internal Medicine
Courtesy Staff Privileges, Medicine
801 Massachusetts Ave | (617) 414-6975alexander.walley@bmc.org
awalley@bu.edu
Sections
General Internal Medicine
Centers
Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit
Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
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 2019-2025. 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 for ACAAM for 2023-2025. With his mentor, Dr. Jeffrey Samet, he is multi-PI on the NIDA-funded R25 Clinical Addiction Research and Education Program, which supports the Chief Resident and Fellow Immersion Training and the CARE Faculty Scholar 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, the Overdose Prevention Program, and the SafeSpot Overdose Prevention Hotline. 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.
Websites
Clinical Addiction Research and Education (CARE) Unit
Grayken Fellowship in Addiction Medicine
Fellow Immersion Training Program in Addiction Medicine
Boston Medical Center Provider Profile
Grayken Fellowship in Addiction Medicine Twitter
Education
Medicine-Internal, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Epidemiology, MSc, Boston University School of Public Health
History and Literature, AB, Harvard College
Publications
Christine PJ, Kimmel SD, Martin SA, Massad C, Walley AY. Correction: National Estimates of Opioid Overdose Hospitalizations Resulting in Hypoxic-ischemic Brain Injury. J Gen Intern Med. 2026 Feb 05. PMID: 41644811.
Published on 1/13/2026Jawa R, Shang M, Ismail S, Murray S, Murray-Krezan C, Zheng Y, Mackin S, Washington K, Alvarez P, Dillon J, McMurtrie G, Walley AY, Liebschutz JM. Navigating an Unpredictable Supply: Lived Experiences of Xylazine Exposure Among People Who Use Drugs. Res Sq. 2026 Jan 13. PMID: 41646312.
Published on 12/5/2025Li Z, Chiddawar TV, Shaw LC, Dennis A, Lieberman A, Kingsepp A, Trinidad AJ, Tuazon E, Welch AE, Chatterjee A, Schackman BR, Enns EA, Walley AY, Green TC, Wagner KD, Winograd RP, Behrends CN, Crable EL, Marshall BDL, Zang X. A descriptive study of drug overdose epidemics, overdose prevention efforts, and opioid settlement fund distribution across six states. Int J Drug Policy. 2026 Jan; 147:105100. PMID: 41351927.
Published on 11/26/2025Lewis O, Srinivasan S, Bayly R, Cordes J, Shrestha S, O'Reilly MR, Kimmel SD, Walley AY, Babakhanlou-Chase H, Stopka TJ. Filling in the gaps: A geospatial approach to optimizing placement of methadone clinics in Massachusetts. J Subst Use Addict Treat. 2026 Feb; 181:209848. PMID: 41314547.
Published on 11/20/2025Bagley SM, Maschke AD, Harris MTH, Walley AY, Johnson S, Hurstak E, Farley J, Keller SG, McMahan VM, Barrett C, Coffin PO, Gunn CM. A qualitative study exploring motivations for participating in research among women who use opioids. PLoS One. 2025; 20(11):e0336061. PMID: 41264582.
Published on 11/20/2025O'Reilly MR, Stopka TJ, Bayly R, Lewis O, Shrestha S, Cordes J, Walley AY, Srinivasan S. Public transit and methadone - Spatial analyses of opioid treatment program access in Greater Boston, 2020-2022. Prev Med Rep. 2025 Dec; 60:103317. PMID: 41362313.
Published on 11/11/2025McCann NC, Yan S, McMahan VM, Rich ZC, Pope E, Rolles A, Brennan S, Marti XL, Kosakowski S, Matheson T, Coffin PO, Walley AY. Witnessed overdose history and response among overdose survivors who use non-prescribed opioids in an overdose prevention trial. Addict Behav. 2026 Feb; 173:108558. PMID: 41237599.
Published on 9/10/2025Walley AY, Wang J, To C, Duska M, Murray S, Wiggins M, Rolles A, Yan S, Kosakowski S, Bagley SM, Xuan Z, Hyde J, Formica SW. Post-overdose outreach programs in Massachusetts before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. J Subst Use Addict Treat. 2025 Dec; 179:209799. PMID: 40939693.
Published on 8/18/2025Zaragoza S, Silcox J, Rapisarda S, Summers C, Case P, To C, Chatterjee A, Walley AY, Komaromy M, Green TC. Correction: Developing a comprehensive inventory to define harm reduction housing. Harm Reduct J. 2025 Aug 18; 22(1):142. PMID: 40826084.
Published on 8/9/2025Paradise RK, Kimmel SD, Nurani A, Desmarais J, O'Malley S, Walley AY, Hoyos-Cespedes A, Clarke J, Taylor S, Dooley D, Bazzi AR. Building connection: overdose survivors' and professional service providers' perspectives on immediate post-overdose care. Int J Drug Policy. 2025 Nov; 145:104948. PMID: 40784254.
Media Mentions
Published on 2/12/2026
Medications for Opioid Use Disorder, Withdrawal, and Overdose
Published on 10/25/2024
Published on 2/8/2024
Higher-dose naloxone spray didn’t save more lives, researchers find
Published on 10/24/2023
Everything You Need to Know about Narcan
Published on 8/23/2023
Post-overdose outreach programs have ‘police paradox’
Published on 3/29/2023
Can Over-the-Counter Narcan Put an End to Opioid Deaths?
Published on 3/29/2023
Advocates cheer OTC approval for Narcan, but questions remain about price and insurance
Published on 3/28/2023
Can Over-the-Counter Narcan Put an End to Opioid Deaths?
Published on 12/29/2021
The Problems in the Health-Care System Are Epidemic
Published on 11/30/2021
Checking Arrest Warrants Undermines the Goal of Post-Overdose Outreach Visits
View full list of 37 media mentions.