Dr. Ibrahim Alava Promoted to Associate Professor
Ibrahim “Trey” Alava III, MD, FACS, has been promoted to associate professor in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. Dr. Alava is chief of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Harris Health Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, which is Texas’ busiest Level III trauma center.
“Since his appointment as chief of service in June 2015, Dr. Alava has built a full-spectrum otolaryngology service at a safety-net hospital – from clinic to OR to inpatient care and follow-up,” says Martin J. Citardi, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at McGovern Medical School and chief of otorhinolaryngology at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. “He has pulled the various UTHealth faculty who rotate there together as a team under his leadership, along with their clinical support staff. He works well with hospital administration. Very few physicians have the skill set to be able to accomplish what he has.” Dr. Alava has also developed subspecialty otolaryngology care for rhinology, head and neck surgery, otology and laryngology at Harris Health LBJ.
Dr. Alava also serves as medical director of the 32 specialty clinics at Harris Health LBJ and helps physicians and staff develop innovative strategies for care. “Otolaryngologists at LBJ work with general surgeons, oral surgeons, ophthalmologists, pulmonologists, and plastic surgeons, and we have to have a broad sense of what we’re working toward together,” he says. “The most important theme of the day is the patient. We have built an ideal model for taking care of patients at a safety-net hospital. Patients who come in through the ER can get an appointment at our clinic within hours or the following day. Some say they are able to see a doctor faster in our clinic than they can get in to see their primary physician.”
He received his medical degree at the University of Miami School of Medicine in Coral Gables, where he was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He completed his internship and residency in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at McGovern Medical School, and was appointed an assistant professor after residency training.
He was named Faculty Member of the Year in 2016 by otorhinolaryngology residents and a Texas Monthly Super Doctor Rising Star in 2016, 2017, and 2018. He has been named a Top Doctor by Houstonia magazine twice and was recognized with the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award at McGovern Medical School in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
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