Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named to the inaugural Time100 Health list, recognizing him as one of the top 100 individuals who have most influenced global health. Al-Aly’s work has focused on long-term health effects on people who have had COVID-19, also known as “long COVID.”
Al-Aly is the director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center at the Washington University-affiliated Veterans Affairs (VA) St. Louis Health Care System and head of research and development service. He has developed significant expertise in deriving insight from big data by leveraging the power of a comprehensive health records database maintained by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which is the nation’s largest integrated health-care delivery system.
Through his more than two dozen studies, Al-Aly has found that people who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 are at higher risks of developing long-term and potentially deadly heart, brain, kidney, gastrointestinal and mental health problems compared with those who have not. His research has shed light on the lasting impact of COVID-19 on individuals’ health and has important implications for public health policy and clinical practice.
