Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists was featured this summer in the popular magazine, Orlando Style. The article focused on the career of Dr. Fortune Alabi and the philosophy of all the doctors here.
You might not realize that Dr. Fortune Alabi is “board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine. He enjoys all aspects of general pulmonary and sleep medicine with a special interest in pulmonary hypertension, sarcoidosis, interstitial lung disease, patient safety and medical errors prevention.”
He graduated from the University of Ilorin in Kwara state in Nigeria and completed his residency and fellowship training in the U.S. at Henry Ford Hospital, University of Cincinati.
You might also be aware that he is “the Assistant Professor of Medicine at University of Central Florida’s School of Medicine. He is the current Assistant Chief of Staff at Florida Hospital Celebration Health.
Find out more about him at this detailed page of our website. He is both founder and managing partner of the Florida Lung Asthma and Sleep Specialists, which he established in 2006.
Dr. Alabi’s Secrets
Although not really “secrets,” Dr. Alabi has many special awards. Modest and soft spoken, Dr. Alabi will seldom speak of his numerous awards, especially the fact he has been chosen as one of the 2014 “Leading Physicians of the World.”
Likewise, Dr. Alabi has been elected one of “America’s Best Doctors” for the last 5 years.
Most dear to his heart are the Patients’ Choice Award and Compassionate Physician Awards, which he has won four times.
The magazine stated, “In his own words, the Patients’ Choice Award is without a doubt what he takes the most pride in as it is voted upon by patients – the people that he cares about the most.”
He contributes the amazing success of the FLASS to people!
The Remarkable Philosophy of Dr. Alabi:
1. A Spiritual Committment: He appreciates the dedication and high standards of the other physicians who make up FLASS. Established in 2006, the practice currently has four other physicians who Dr. Alabi strongly believes are instrumental to this award. Likewise, he enjoys the participation of many loyal referral physicians who rely on him as a specialist in his field.
2. Compassionate Healing and Loyal Support: Plus, he surprisingly credits the success of Florida Lung, Asthma, and Sleep Specialists to the loyalty from the many patients who walk through the office doors. Moreover, Dr. Alabi was “Patient-centered” long before the term became trendy, as it is today. He told the magazine, “I see myself as an extension of my patient’s family, providing reliable, compassionate and expert guidance for my patients and their families.”
3. In fact, in the words of the article, “Dr. Alabi dedicates this award to the practice’s loyal patients that inspire him and his partners’ mission to continuously provide quality and compassionate medical care. He also values the many referring physicians that have entrusted their patients to his group. He gave details about this philosophy both in the article, and in a recent interview with the writer of this blog.
4. Patients As Partners: There was a long held belief that when a patient came to a doctor, he expected to take the doctor’s words and medicines with no participation in the health maintenance experience at all. Doctor’s were like dictatorial daddies, and patients were authoritatively simply told what to do, as if they were children.
Today, Dr. Alabi rejects this old paternalistic patter of physician behavior. As stated in the magazine, he believes, “physicians should be care partners and work together with their patients in the decision-making process.” He gives his patients options and explanations.
5. How To Treat Patients : Dr. Alabi thinks that achieving a partnership between doctor and patient in the health care experience involves taking the time to communicate simple explanations of diagnosis and treatments to patients. (It is no wonder that Dr. Alabi’s patients become loyal fans!)
6. A New Personalization: In the article, Dr. Alabi also states, “I believe that patients should be treated just like medical professionals would like to be treated or how they would expect their family members to be treated when ill.
Dr. Alabi’s partnership, and even kinship with patients is totally different from old style, de-personalized medicine once rampant as a philosophy in this country. (Indeed, this blog writer remembers once being referred to as “the foot” in exam room 3, by a doctor. Granted, I had a foot problem, but I felt completely reduced by the reference.) In contrast, Dr. Alabi told Orlando Style writers, “I believe that the emphasis should always be on the patient and never on their disease.”
He added, “We take special steps to break down the wall that exists between patients and doctors in order to provide a real human experience with our patients. We are different because we sincerely care about our patients. They are not just patients to us but an extension of our FLASS families.”
Irregardless of the fact that he is a lung specialist, Dr. Alabi confided to this blog writer that he viewed himself a doctor for his patient’s whole being. His considerations go beyond the lungs, into every system, and beyond the body to the mental and spiritual well-being of his patient.
