Dr. Hansel Tookes Named National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Scholar

The infectious disease expert’s pioneering work includes launching the IDEA Syringe Services Program that’s been extended throughout the state of Florida.

Dr. Hansel Tookes

The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) has selected Hansel Tookes, M.D., M.P.H., to join its exclusive ranks as an Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Scholar. The honor recognizes Dr. Tookes’ pioneering and influential work devising tenable solutions for addiction and infectious disease issues.

Each year, NAM chooses only 10 experts with demonstrated leadership and achievements in biomedical science, population health, health care and related fields for the honor. During his three-year term, Dr. Tookes, a professor of infectious disease at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, will collaborate with interdisciplinary members of NAM to shape the organization’s priorities and accelerate progress in science, medicine, policy and health equity.

“I am humbled and just astounded,” Dr. Tookes said of his selection.

Health for Everyone, Everywhere

Dr. Tookes’ career achievements reflect NAM’s mission to advance science, inform policy and catalyze action to achieve human health, equity and well-being. The organization’s vision — health for everyone, everywhere — shaped Dr. Tookes’ philosophy long before he was named an Emerging Leaders Scholar.

A member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), Dr. Tookes is a national advocate for the harm-reduction approach to HIV treatment and prevention services. That approach emphasizes effective care for the underserved, including unhoused individuals and people who inject drugs.

Dr. Tookes is a national leader in advancing health equity, pioneering essential research and providing vital community outreach.
—Miller School of Medicine Dean Henri Ford

“It is vital to treat these individuals with dignity and respect and listen to their ideas, as they are the experts in their own personal health,” he said after joining PACHA.

Dr. Tookes has been awarded a $2.6 million Avenir Award and a $3.1 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health to connect people who inject drugs with comprehensive HIV prevention and treatment services in harm reduction settings.

Dr. Tookes is also founder and medical director of the IDEA Lab, a Miller School of Medicine health service program that advocates for people who use drugs. It also houses the IDEA Syringe Services Program, which distributes syringes for HIV and hepatitis C prevention and provides on-demand health care, medications for treatment of substance use disorder and behavioral health services. The program was the first of its kind in Florida and one for which Dr. Tookes spent five years appealing to the Florida Legislature for the pilot.

That work resulted in a 2020 Sapphire Award, presented by the Florida Blue Foundation that works to fight hunger, substance use or poverty in Florida communities. The IDEA Syringe Services Program model was extended statewide after passage of the Infectious Disease Elimination Act of 2019, legislation for which Dr. Tookes was an integral proponent.

National Leader in Health Equity

Dr. Tookes credits Henri R. Ford, M.D., M.H.A., dean and chief academic officer of the Miller School, for the years of mentorship and career guidance that got him to this point. Dean Ford nominated Dr. Tookes for this recognition and Guillermo “Willy” Prado, University of Miami interim provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, seconded the nomination.

Dr. Tookes exchanges sterile needles for used ones.
Dr. Tookes (right) was an early proponent of the IDEA Syringe Services Program that has been extended throughout Florida.

“Dr. Tookes is a national leader in advancing health equity, pioneering essential research and providing vital community outreach,” said Dean Ford. “He is truly deserving of this honor and I look forward to his continued influence and impact in the field.”

It won’t be Dr. Tookes’ first time contributing to the National Academy of Medicine. He spoke at the Academy’s 2022 Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Forum on the use of tele-harm reduction to treat people with HIV.

“I came back absolutely stunned with the amazing work that people were doing across disciplines,” he said. “I was in a room where everybody was a transformational leader.”

This year he presented at a NAM workshop about data, evidence and research needs surrounding harm reduction for people who use drugs.

Dr. Tookes is now in good company. His own father was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Tookes believes the nomination is not just a reflection of his achievements but of the overall trajectory of the Miller School.

“Being able to participate in this program, through this national leadership role, makes me realize all the amazing work that we’re doing here in Miami,” he said.

For Dr. Tookes, it comes back to his “fantastic mentorship” at the university.

“The dean was truly the one who recognized something in me that perhaps I didn’t always see in myself,” he said. “He supported me along the way and it’s been transformational in my career.”


Tags: Dr. Hansel Tookes, Infectious diseases, intravenous drug users, National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine