Eric L. Wallace, MD, FASN
Citation: Kidney News 15, 10/11
Dr. Wallace is professor of medicine, co-medical director of home dialysis, and medical director of the rare genetic kidney disease programs at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
Recognizing the promise of telehealth to deliver services to remote areas, in 2015, he began providing one of the first comprehensive telehealth visits to an older patient on home dialysis in a rural area. The success of this approach led to Dr. Wallace becoming the medical director of telehealth for The UAB health system in 2017.
He has initiated numerous telehealth programs, such as for stroke and critical care, that have significantly improved delivery of care and revenue in rural hospitals in Alabama. He oversaw the transition of care to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, which revealed a 280-fold increase in telehealth across the health system. Dr. Wallace has continued to focus on sustaining telehealth and delivery of care to those with geographic barriers to accessing care.
His research has focused on eliminating geographic and socioeconomic barriers to specialized care, with an emphasis on home dialysis and rare diseases, such as Fabry disease. He is expanding the telemedicine platform he established for his studies on home dialysis to create a network and establish processes to allow physicians at UAB to provide care across the state to patients whose travel is limited by geographic or financial constraints. He hopes these efforts can help address physician workforce distribution issues and access to care across the country.
Dr. Wallace received his MD from The UAB School of Medicine, where he also completed an internal medicine residency and served as chief resident. After completing a clinical fellowship in nephrology at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Wallace joined the faculty at UAB.
