Dr. James M. Lai

Dr. James M. Lai is Chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. He received his Medical Degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center and Baltimore VA Medical Center. He completed Fellowship training in Geriatric Medicine and as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar, both at the Yale School of Medicine. Prior to his current position, he served in leadership roles as the Associate Director of Clinical Services for Geriatrics and Palliative Care at NYU Langone and as the Associate Chief of Clinical Affairs for the Section of Geriatrics at the Yale School of Medicine.Dr. Lai's professional interests are focused on innovative program development in Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, designing Age-Friendly Health Systems, and improving clinical outcomes for a diverse and expanding population of older adults. With respect to research, Dr. Lai is co- developer of the ACED, a clinical capacity assessment tool, developed and validated for use in evaluating decision-making capacity for everyday decisions in patients with dementia; more recently, he has studied the role of geriatric care in the ED and AI/data driven models designed for the early detection of dementia in the clinical setting. Clinically, Dr. Lai practices geriatrics in both the inpatient and outpatient settings throughout the Columbia sphere, having extensive experience as a geriatrician, hospitalist, and primary care provider.

His clinical expertise encompasses Dementia, Sepsis, Necrosis, Ureteral Reconstruction, and Endoscopy.

Dr. Lai is board certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine. He is actively involved in clinical research, co-authoring 7 peer reviewed articles. Dr. Lai is currently accepting new patients.