FRI Welcomes New Research Scientist Dr. Babak Tofighi

FRI is pleased to announce that Dr. Babak Tofighi, MD, MSc has joined the organization as a Research Scientist. Dr. Tofighi is a physician scientist with training in internal medicine and addiction medicine. He comes to FRI from New York, where he was an Assistant Professor at the New York University Department of Population Health. He received his MD from St. George’s University, his MSc in Clinical Investigation from the New York University School of Medicine, where he also completed fellowships in primary care research and addiction medicine.

Dr. Tofighi has extensive experience in direct patient care, which informs his research agenda. His clinical and training experiences include Attending Physician at Bellevue Hospital in New York and Physician at OnPoint, New York City’s Overdose Prevention Center. He was also a provider training consultant with the NYC Health+Hospitals system. Building on his disaster response work during Hurricane Sandy, Dr. Tofighi spearheaded the NYC Health+Hospitals Virtual Buprenorphine Clinic, which helped to ensure access to opioid use disorder treatment during the coronavirus pandemic throughout New York City.

Dr. Tofighi’s research interests include integrating community-based participatory research and health information technologies to address health equity in primary care, enhancing primary care-based disaster preparedness and response, medical education for substance use disorders, and leveraging technologies (such as telemedicine, health informatics, artificial intelligence, mHealth) to enhance access to primary care and improve outcomes among vulnerable populations.

His research has been supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), and the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ). Dr. Tofighi maintains an affiliation with the New York State Office of Mental Health Nathan Klein Institute, Division of Social Solutions and Services Research. At FRI, Dr. Tofighi will pursue a program of research on opioid use disorder focused around the use of peer-based approaches, intervention technologies, and minority health disparities.

FRI is delighted to welcome Dr. Tofighi and wishes him success with the organization.