Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Faculty

Albert Wu
Professor

Academic Degrees
MD, MPH

Departmental Affiliation
Health Policy and Management

Joint Departmental Affiliations
Epidemiology
International Health

Departmental Address
Hampton House 653

Email: awu@jhsph.edu

Phone: 410-955-6567
Fax: 410-955-0470

Research and Professional Experience

His research and teaching focus on patient outcomes and quality of care.

He was among the first to measure quality of life outcomes in people with HIV. He was one of the founders of the Outcomes Committe of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group of the NIH ACTG. He developed the MOS-HIV Health Survey, a leading measure of health related quality of life for people with HIV that is used widely in international trials and research studies.

He has studied the handling of medical errors since 1998, and has published influential papers including “Do house officers learn from their mistakes” in JAMA in 1991, “To tell the truth - ethical and practical issues in disclosing medical mistakes to patients” in the Journal of General Internal Medicine and “Medical error: the second victim” in the BMJ. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine committee on Preventing Medication Errors, and Senior Adviser to the World Health Organization Patient Safety program in Geneva from 2007-2009.

He is director of the AHRQ-funded Hopkins DEcIDE center for comparative effectiveness research. He maintains a clinical practice in general internal medicine.

Keywords

Patient Safety, Disclosure, Quality of Life, Comparative Effectiveness Research, Adherence

Honors and Awards

New York Festivals: Film and Video: Health Care Professional Education 2006 - Bronze World Medal for 'Removing Insult From Injury: Disclosing Adverse Events’

Selected Publications

Woodward HI, Mytton OT, Lemer C, Yardley IE, Ellis BM, Rutter PD, Greaves FEC, Noble DJ, Kelley E, Wu AW. What Have We Learned About Interventions to Reduce Medical Errors? Ann Rev Public Health 2010;31:26.1-26.</p>

Segal JB, Clark JM, Shore AD, Dominici F, Magnuson T, Richards TM, Weiner JP, Bass EB, Wu AW, Makary MA. Prompt reduction in use of medications for comorbid conditions after bariatric surgery. Obes Surg. 2009 Dec;19(12):1646-56.

McCay L, Lemer C, Wu AW. Laboratory safety and the WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety. Clin Chim Acta 2009;404(1):6-11.

Pronovost PJ, Goeschel CA, Olsen KL, Phan JC, Miller MR, Berenholtz SM, Sexton B, Marstellar JA, Morlock LL, Wu AW, Loeb JM, Clancy CM. Reducing health care hazards: Lessons from the commercial aviation safety team. Health Affairs 2009; 28(3): w479-89.

Snyder CF, Jensen R, Courtin SO, Wu AW; Website for Outpatient QOL Assessment Research Network. PatientViewpoint: a website for patient-reported outcomes assessment. Qual Life Res. 2009 Sep;18(7):793-800. .

Wu AW, Huang IC, Stokes S, Pronovost PJ. Disclosing medical errors to patients: it's not what you say, it's what they hear. J Gen Intern Med. 2009 Sep;24(9):1012-7.

Wu AW, Wu CC, Sugg DK. Ray Wu's Golden Rules: How he achieved greatness in work, and in life. Science in China. Series C - Life Sciences. 2009:52:101-7.

Croskerry P, Abbass A, Wu AW. How doctors feel: affective issues in patient safety. Lancet 2008 Oct 4;372 (9645):1205-6.

Guaraldi G, Murri R, Orlando G, Giovanardi C, Squillace N, Vandelli M, Beghetto B, Nardini G, De Paola M, Esposito R, Wu AW. Severity of lipodystrophy is associated with decreased health-related quality of life. AIDS Patient Care STDS. 2008 Jul;22(7):577-85.

Snyder CF, Garrett-Mayer E, Brahmer JR, Carducci MA, Pili R, Stearns V, Wolff AC, Dy SM, Wu AW. Symptoms, supportive care needs, and function in cancer patients: how are they related? Qual Life Res. 2008 Jun;17(5):665-77.

Huang IC, Wu AW, Finnern HW, Thijs H, Gathe JC, Fairclough DL. Health-related quality of life and tolerability in treatment-experienced HIV-1-infected patients on tipranavir versus comparator regimens. Antivir Ther. 2008;13(1):15-25.

Wu AW, Lipshutz AK, Pronovost PJ. Effectiveness and efficiency of root cause analysis in medicine. JAMA. 2008 Feb 13;299(6):685-7

Fairclough DL, Thijs H, Huang IC, Finnern HW, Wu AW. Handling missing quality of life data in HIV clinical trials: what is practical? Qual Life Res. 2008 Feb;17(1):61-73.

Burman WJ, Grund B, Roediger MP, Friedland G, Darbyshire J, Wu AW; SMART Study Group. The impact of episodic CD4 cell count-guided antiretroviral therapy on quality of life. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2008 Feb 1;47(2):185-93

Segal JB, Griswold M, Achy-Brou A, Herbert R, Bass EB, Dy SM, Millman AE, Wu AW, Frangakis CE. Using propensity scores subclassification to estimate effects of longitudinal treatments: an example using a new diabetes medication. Med Care. 2007 Oct;45(10 Supl 2):S149-57.

Pronovost P, Holzmueller CG, Needham DM, Sexton JB, Miller M, Berenholtz S, Wu AW, Perl T, Davis R, Baker D, Winner L, Morlock L. How will we know patients are safer? An organization-wide approach to measuring and improving safety Critical Care Medicine 2006 Dec;21(4):305-315).

Wu AW, Sexton JB, Pronovost PJ. Partnership with patients: a prescription for ICU safety. Chest. 2006 Nov;130(5):1291-3.

Wu AW, Snyder CF, Huang IC, Skolasky R, McGruder HF, Celano SA, Selnes OA, Andrade AS. A randomized trial of the impact of a programmable medication reminder device on quality of life in patients with AIDS. AIDS Patient Care STDS. 2006 Nov;20(11):773-81.

Guaraldi G, Orlando G, Murri R, Vandelli M, De Paola M, Beghetto B, Nardini G, Ciaffi S, Vichi F, Esposito, Wu AW. Quality of life and body image in the assessment of psychological impact of lipodystrophy: validation of the italian version of assessment of body change and distress questionnaire. Qual Life Res. 2006 Feb;15(1):15-24.

Sedrakyan A, Wu AW, Parashar A, Bass EB, Treasure T. Off-pump surgery is associated with reduced occurrence of stroke and other morbidity as compared with traditional coronary artery bypass grafting. A meta-analysis of systematically reviewed trials. Stroke 2006 Nov; 37(11): 2759-69.

Boyd CM, Darer J, Boult C, Fried LP, Boult L, Wu AW. Clinical practice guidelines and quality of care for older patients with multiple comorbid diseases: implications for pay for performance. JAMA. 2005 10;294(6):716-724.

Berlinger N, Wu AW. Subtracting insult from injury: addressing cultural expectations in the disclosure of medical error. J Med Ethics. 2005 Feb;31(2):106-108.

Update your faculty page