Bio

Dr. Burak Alsan is a board-certified internal medicine doctor and pediatrician at Stanford Health Care. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Primary Care and Population Health at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Dr. Alsan diagnoses and treats a wide range of conditions. He cares for patients of all ages, from newborns to older adults, providing them with the support and tools they need to lead healthy lives. Dr. Alsan has a special interest in working with adolescents and young adults with childhood-onset disorders as they transition from pediatric to adult care and is developing a novel transition consultation program in the Department of Family Medicine.

Dr. Alsan’s research focuses on improving workplace satisfaction for primary care providers and patient education for young adults. He also co-authored a study evaluating the effects of a social media campaign that encouraged people to stay home during the holidays to reduce COVID-19 transmission. Dr. Alsan has published his research in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature Medicine and Clinical and Translational Science.

Clinical Focus

  • Young Adults with Chronic Disease
  • Transition to Adult Care
  • Internal Medicine

Academic Appointments

Professional Education

  • Residency: Massachusetts General Internal Medicine and Pediatric Residency (2009) MA
  • Medical Education: Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine (2005) IL
  • Board Certification: American Board of Pediatrics, Pediatrics (2017)
  • Board Certification: American Board of Internal Medicine, Internal Medicine (2009)

Contact

  • Academic
    Department: Med/Primary Care and Population Health Position: Clinical Assistant Professor
    • 211 QUARRY RD
    • PALO ALTO,  California  94304 
  • Clinical (Primary)  Stanford Internal Medicine 211 Quarry Rd Ste 305 MC 5987 Palo Alto, CA 94304 (650) 725-7070 (fax)

Additional Clinical Info

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 5702

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

Pilot Study on the Use of Televisits for Transition Education for Young Adults with Chronic Disease

Clinical Trials

  • COVID-19 Messaging for Vaccination Not Recruiting

    This study will distribute videos of health professionals encouraging Covid-19 vaccination to a large sample of Facebook users, and will test the most effective ways to maximize diffusion of this vaccine-related content to increase vaccination rates. The study sample will be U.S. states where vaccination rates remained low in fall 2021. The experimental design is an RCT with 4 groups, randomized at the county level: 1) a control group which receives no intervention, 2) a treatment group in which Facebook users receive ads which include videos of health professionals telling them to get vaccinated, 3) a treatment group in which Facebook users receive ads which include videos of health professionals encouraging them to help their friends to get vaccinated, and 4) a treatment group in which Facebook users receive ads which include videos of health professionals encouraging them to get their most influential friends to help their friends get vaccinated. In treatments 3 and 4, participants will have the option to sign up to be a "vaccine ambassador," in which case they will get notifications when the study team posts new vaccine-related content, and will receive reminders about encouraging their friends to be vaccinated. The vaccine ambassadors will also be entered into a lottery to win prizes. The study team is building a website to host the videos of health professionals which answer common questions about Covid-19 vaccination. The investigators will measure engagement with the vaccine-related content as well as assess effects on vaccination rates at the county level.

    Stanford is currently not accepting patients for this trial.

    View full details

All Publications

  • Effects of a large-scale social media advertising campaign on holiday travel and COVID-19 infections: a cluster randomized controlled trial. Nature medicine Breza, E., Stanford, F. C., Alsan, M., Alsan, B., Banerjee, A., Chandrasekhar, A. G., Eichmeyer, S., Glushko, T., Goldsmith-Pinkham, P., Holland, K., Hoppe, E., Karnani, M., Liegl, S., Loisel, T., Ogbu-Nwobodo, L., Olken, B. A., Torres, C., Vautrey, P., Warner, E. T., Wootton, S., Duflo, E. 2021

    Abstract

    During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, many health professionals used social media to promote preventative health behaviors. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of the effect of a Facebook advertising campaign consisting of short videos recorded by doctors and nurses to encourage users to stay at home for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays ( NCT04644328 and AEARCTR-0006821 ). We randomly assigned counties to high intensity (n=410 (386) at Thanksgiving (Christmas)) or low intensity (n=410 (381)). The intervention was delivered to a large fraction of Facebook subscribers in 75% and 25% of randomly assigned zip codes in high- and low-intensity counties, respectively. In total, 6,998 (6,716) zip codes were included, and 11,954,109 (23,302,290) users were reached at Thanksgiving (Christmas). The first two primary outcomes were holiday travel and fraction leaving home, both measured using mobile phone location data of Facebook users. Average distance traveled in high-intensity counties decreased by -0.993 percentage points (95% confidence interval (CI): -1.616, -0.371; P = 0.002) for the 3 days before each holiday compared to low-intensity counties. The fraction of people who left home on the holiday was not significantly affected (adjusted difference: 0.030; 95%CI: -0.361, 0.420; P = 0.881). The third primary outcome was COVID-19 infections recorded at the zip code level in the 2-week period starting 5 days after the holiday. Infections declined by 3.5% (adjusted 95%CI: -6.2%, -0.7%; P = 0.013) in intervention compared to control zip codes. Social media messages recorded by health professionals before the winter holidays in the United States led to a significant reduction in holiday travel and subsequent COVID-19 infections.

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41591-021-01487-3

    View details for PubMedID 34413518

  • Doctors and Nurses Social Media Ads Reduced Holiday Travel and COVID-19 infections: A cluster randomized controlled trial in 13 States. ArXiv Breza, E., Stanford, F. C., Alsan, M., Alsan, B., Banerjee, A., Chandrasekhar, A. G., Eichmeyer, S., Glushko, T., Goldsmith-Pinkham, P., Holland, K., Hoppe, E., Karnani, M., Liegl, S., Loisel, T., Ogbu-Nwobodo, L., Olken, B. A., Torres, C., Vautrey, P., Warner, E., Wootton, S., Duflo, E. 2021

    Abstract

    During the COVID-19 epidemic, many health professionals started using mass communication on social media to relay critical information and persuade individuals to adopt preventative health behaviors. Our group of clinicians and nurses developed and recorded short video messages to encourage viewers to stay home for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays. We then conducted a two-stage clustered randomized controlled trial in 820 counties (covering 13 States) in the United States of a large-scale Facebook ad campaign disseminating these messages. In the first level of randomization, we randomly divided the counties into two groups: high intensity and low intensity. In the second level, we randomly assigned zip codes to either treatment or control such that 75% of zip codes in high intensity counties received the treatment, while 25% of zip codes in low intensity counties received the treatment. In each treated zip code, we sent the ad to as many Facebook subscribers as possible (11,954,109 users received at least one ad at Thanksgiving and 23,302,290 users received at least one ad at Christmas). The first primary outcome was aggregate holiday travel, measured using mobile phone location data, available at the county level: we find that average distance travelled in high-intensity counties decreased by -0.993 percentage points (95% CI -1.616, -0.371, p-value 0.002) the three days before each holiday. The second primary outcome was COVID-19 infection at the zip-code level: COVID-19 infections recorded in the two-week period starting five days post-holiday declined by 3.5 percent (adjusted 95% CI [-6.2 percent, -0.7 percent], p-value 0.013) in intervention zip codes compared to control zip codes.

    View details for PubMedID 34159223

  • Regulation of avian cardiogenesis by Fgf8 signaling DEVELOPMENT Alsan, B. H., Schultheiss, T. M. 2002; 129 (8): 1935-1943

    Abstract

    The avian heart develops from paired primordia located in the anterior lateral mesoderm of the early embryo. Previous studies have found that the endoderm adjacent to the cardiac primordia plays an important role in heart specification. The current study provides evidence that fibroblast growth factor (Fgf) signaling contributes to the heart-inducing properties of the endoderm. Fgf8 is expressed in the endoderm adjacent to the precardiac mesoderm. Removal of endoderm results in a rapid downregulation of a subset of cardiac markers, including Nkx2.5 and Mef2c. Expression of these markers can be rescued by supplying exogenous Fgf8. In addition, application of ectopic Fgf8 results in ectopic expression of cardiac markers. Expression of cardiac markers is expanded only in regions where bone morphogenetic protein (Bmp) signaling is also present, suggesting that cardiogenesis occurs in regions exposed to both Fgf and Bmp signaling. Finally, evidence is presented that Fgf8 expression is regulated by particular levels of Bmp signaling. Application of low concentrations of Bmp2 results in ectopic expression of Fgf8, while application of higher concentrations of Bmp2 result in repression of Fgf8 expression. Together, these data indicate that Fgf signaling cooperates with Bmp signaling to regulate early cardiogenesis.

    View details for Web of Science ID 000175473800013

    View details for PubMedID 11934859