Raolat Abdulai MD, MMSc

Respiratory Cluster in the Immunology & Inflammation Therapeutic Area at Sanofi. In her role, she serves as the clinical strategic lead on projects with a focus of bringing transformational medicines to patients with severe immune-driven diseases. In addition to her role in drug development, she works to advance the Sanofi digital health initiatives. In 2019, she was a featured paneled at the first ever MassBio Digital Health Impact conference. Her particular area of interest is building a platform for digital health equity to ensure that the technological evolution of clinical trials leads to improved diversity in research and better health outcomes.

Dr. Abdulai immigrated to the United States at the age of five and grew up in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. She attended medical school at nearby Howard University College of Medicine. She decided to pursue a career in medicine due to her own experience of growing up uninsured and watching loved ones suffer from untreated medical conditions. She was so impacted by these experiences that, while in medical school, Dr. Abdulai co-founded a free clinic to provide holistic quality care to the uninsured and underinsured local population. In 2009, Dr. Abdulai was featured in O! Oprah Magazine as one of 80 inspirational women entrepreneurs from around the country. She was invited to the White House for President Obama’s Innovative Programs Summit which highlighted impactful social entrepreneurship programs across the country. The New Freedman’s Clinic continues to serve patients today. After medical school, she completed internal medicine training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and her Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. During her fellowship she earned a Masters of Medical Science in Biomedical Informatics from Harvard Medical School. She is triple board certified and continues to practice by volunteering at a Boston-based community health center where she treats patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Dr. Abdulai is a member of the American Thoracic Society and has served on the Health Equity and Diversity Committee. Her passions include increasing access to clinical trials for women and people of color. Her personal project focusing on this area, TrialUp!, was chosen for the Harvard iLab Venture Incubation Program in 2016-17. In her free time, Dr. Abdulai enjoys mentoring young scientists, traveling, cooking for friends, and yoga.