Alden Lai
Assistant Professor of Public Health Policy and Management
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Professional overview
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Alden Lai studies how the jobs and work environments of health care workers can be improved to increase employee outcomes (e.g., wellbeing, retention) as well as organizational performance (e.g., program implementation, patient safety). He uses theories and frameworks from psychology, organization science, and health services research in his work. Dr. Lai's research has appeared in both management and health care journals, including Academy of Management Discoveries, Health Care Management Review, Medical Care Research and Review, and The Milbank Quarterly. He has an affiliated faculty appointment in the Department of Management and Organizations at NYU Stern.
At GPH, he teaches courses on management, leadership, and strategy in public health.
Dr. Lai has advised federal and state governments, health systems, international and non-profit organizations, corporations, and philanthropies internationally. His professional experiences include being a management consultant, social enterprise strategist, and education researcher. He currently serves as Executive Advisor to the Global Wellbeing Initiative, a collaboration between the Wellbeing for Planet Earth Foundation and Gallup Inc. to foster a more globally inclusive understanding of wellbeing for research, practice, and policy. Dr. Lai also serves as Chair of the Health Care Research Stream for the Industry Studies Association. He is Co-Editor of an upcoming book by Springer on professional development for early career researchers. Previously, he served as Chair of the European Health Psychology Society’s early career researcher division, and was an executive committee member in the Academy of Management's Division of Health Care Management.
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Education
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BA, Psychology, National University of Singapore, SingaporeMPH, Social & Behavioral Sciences, The University of Tokyo, JapanPhD, Health Policy & Management (Organizational Behavior), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
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Honors and awards
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NYU GPH Leadership Development Award (2021)19 Washington Square North Faculty Fellowship (2021)Outstanding Paper based on a Dissertation Award, Division of Health Care Management, Academy of Management (2021)Show Chwan Scholar in Health Care Management (2018)Sir Arthur Newsholme Scholar (2015)The University of Tokyo President Award (2013)University of Copenhagen-International Alliance of Research Universities Scholar (2012)Government of Japan Monbukagakusho Scholar (2011)Sato-Yo International Foundation Scholar (2009)
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Areas of research and study
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Health Care WorkforceManagerial CognitionPatient SafetyPopulation HealthPrimary CareProactivity at WorkQualitative and Mixed MethodsQualitative ResearchWell-Being at Work
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Consulting and Community Engagement
Asian Venture Philanthropy Network
Carnegie UK Trust
Clinical Directors Network Inc.
Earth Company
G1 Institute Japan
Gallup Inc.
Harvard University Human Flourishing Program
John Templeton Foundation
Unson Foundation
National Healthcare Group
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
New York City Health + Hospitals
New York City Office of Labor Relations
Nikkei Inc.
OECD Statistics and Data Directorate
OECD Center for Well-Being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity
Otsuka Pharmaceutical
Oxford University Wellbeing Research Centre
PERSOL Holdings
Physician Affiliate Group of New York
Templeton World Charity Foundation
The Consumer Goods Forum
Wellbeing for Planet Earth Foundation
Woodlands Health Campus
World Happiness Council-
Publications
Publications
Managing Surges in Demand: A Grounded Conceptual Framework of Surge Management Capability
Complexifying Individualism Versus Collectivism and West Versus East: Exploring Global Diversity in Perspectives on Self and Other in the Gallup World Poll
Delivering High-Quality Primary Care Requires Work That Is Worthwhile for Medical Assistants
Starting from scratch: New work design to enact entrance screening during the COVID-19 pandemic
The world prefers a calm life, but not everyone gets to have one: global trends in valuing and experiencing calmness in the Gallup World Poll
A double-edged sword: The effects of social network ties on job satisfaction in primary care organizations
Association of Implementation and Social Network Factors With Patient Safety Culture in Medical Homes: A Coincidence Analysis
Balance and harmony in the Gallup World Poll: The development of the Global Wellbeing Initiative module
Being “low on the totem pole”: What makes work worthwhile for medical assistants in an era of primary care transformation
Challenges and Strategies for Patient Safety in Primary Care: A Qualitative Study
Final Thoughts
Global Trends of Mean and Inequality in Multidimensional Wellbeing: Analysis of 1.2 Million Individuals From 162 Countries, 2009–2019
Racial/ethnic disparities in the availability of hospital based opioid use disorder treatment
Setting Up for a Thriving Career
AbstractLai, A. Y. (n.d.). In Survival Guide for Early Career Researchers: Assessing Your Scholarly Identity and Institutional Environment (1–).Publication year
2022Page(s)
13-25AbstractWhat does it mean to be thriving in our early careers as researchers? In this chapter, I discuss the need to assess our scholarly identity and our institutional environment so that we can maximize the fit between them to craft a thriving career for ourselves. I also discuss how assessing our scholarly identities requires continuous reflection on what we do at work, as well as the communities and places that we belong to, and the ways we most want to spend our time. I consider the fundamental elements of scholarly institutional environments - research, funding, teaching, mentoring, service, and professional development activities - and look at how they shape the norms of an institution and define the extent to which we can assert our scholarly identity. This chapter aims to clarify how we can better align what our institutions expect with what we individually value as early career researchers so that we can sustainably enjoy our work and be good at it, and thus thrive.State-level unemployment and negative emotions throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States
Survival Guide for Early Career Researchers
Trends in negative emotions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
Work Engagement and Patient Quality of Care: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review
Work Hard, Snore Hard
Community Health Needs Predict Population Health Partnerships Among U.S. Children’s Hospitals
Even superheroes need rest
Patient perceptions of safety in primary care: a qualitative study to inform care
Rapid Transition to Telehealth and the Digital Divide: Implications for Primary Care Access and Equity in a Post-COVID Era
AbstractChang, J. E., Lai, A. Y., Gupta, A., Nguyen, A. M., Berry, C. A., & Shelley, D. R. (n.d.).Publication year
2021Journal title
Milbank QuarterlyVolume
99Issue
2Page(s)
340-368AbstractPolicy Points Telehealth has many potential advantages during an infectious disease outbreak such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to telehealth as a prominent care delivery mode. Not all health care providers and patients are equally ready to take part in the telehealth revolution, which raises concerns for health equity during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Without proactive efforts to address both patient- and provider-related digital barriers associated with socioeconomic status, the wide-scale implementation of telehealth amid COVID-19 may reinforce disparities in health access in already marginalized and underserved communities. To ensure greater telehealth equity, policy changes should address barriers faced overwhelmingly by marginalized patient populations and those who serve them. Context: The COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed fundamental shifts across the US health care delivery system, including a rapid transition to telehealth. Telehealth has many potential advantages, including maintaining critical access to care while keeping both patients and providers safe from unnecessary exposure to the coronavirus. However, not all health care providers and patients are equally ready to take part in this digital revolution, which raises concerns for health equity during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The study analyzed data about small primary care practices’ telehealth use and barriers to telehealth use collected from rapid-response surveys administered by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Bureau of Equitable Health Systems and New York University from mid-April through mid-June 2020 as part of the city's efforts to understand how primary care practices were responding to the COVID-19 pandemic following New York State's stay-at-home order on March 22. We focused on small primary care practices because they represent 40% of primary care providers and are disproportionately located in low-income, minority or immigrant areas that were more severely impacted by COVID-19. To examine whether telehealth use and barriers differed based on the socioeconomic characteristics of the communities served by these practices, we used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to stratify respondents as being in high-SVI or low-SVI areas. We then characterized respondents’ telehealth use and barriers to adoption by using means and proportions with 95% confidence intervals. In addition to a primary analysis using pooled data across the five waves of the survey, we performed sensitivity analyses using data from respondents who only took one survey, first wave only, and the last two waves only. Findings: While all providers rapidly shifted to telehealth, there were differences based on community characteristics in both the primary mode of telehealth used and the types of barriers experienced by providers. Providers in high-SVI areas were almost twice as likely as providers in low-SVI areas to use telephones as their primary telehealth modality (41.7% vs 23.8%; P <.001). The opposite was true for video, which was used as the primary telehealth modality by 18.7% of providers in high-SVI areas and 33.7% of providers in low-SVI areas (P <0.001). Providers in high-SVI areas also faced more patient-related barriers and fewer provider-related barriers than those in low-SVI areas. Conclusions: Between April and June 2020, telehealth became a prominent mode of primary care delivery in New York City. However, the transition to telehealth did not unfold in the same manner across communities. To ensure greater telehealth equity, policy changes should address barriers faced overwhelmingly by marginalized patient populations and those who serve them.THE INCOMPLETE, OUTDATED, INCORRECT, AND UNKNOWN: MITIGATING THREATS OF KNOWLEDGE ERRORS IN HIGH-PERFORMANCE PRIMARY CARE
COVID-19 and primary care physicians:: Adapting to rapid change in clinical roles and settings
Lai, A., Thomas, S. C., Sullivan, E. E., Fleuren, B. P. I., Raj, M., DePuccio, M. J., Stephenson, A. L., & McAlearney, A. S. (n.d.).Publication year
2020Journal title
Journal of Hospital Management and Health PolicyVolume
4