Babak Tofighi, MD

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health at the New York University School of Medicine, Assistant Director of the Addiction Medicine Fellowship program at NYU, and practice primary care at Bellevue Hospital Center.  Previously I completed a 1-year clinical fellowship in Addiction Medicine at NYU and a 2-year NRSA-funded T32 primary care research fellowship (T32HP22238-01-00). I was during this same period a Research in Addiction Medicine Scholar (R25DA03211) and received additional training in health services research with Dr. Jeffrey Samet. At Bellevue Hospital, I have been involved in expanding opioid and alcohol pharmacotherapies in primary care. 

My fellowship thesis project assessed for mobile phone use patterns and preferences for mobile phone-based interventions among our office-based opioid treatment program (OBOT) patients. Following Hurricane Sandy and the temporary closure of Bellevue, we published findings which assessed the impact of disaster-related adverse events on rates of substance use and the importance of mobile phone-based contact to mitigate disruption of patients’ treatment in OBOT.  I then surveyed Bellevue OBOT patients regarding mobile phone use patterns and described high rates of mobile phone ownership, frequent use of text messaging, and high acceptability for text message-based interventions.

Upon completing fellowship in June 2014, I joined the NYU faculty and served as study physician for CTN-0051 (extended-release naltrexone versus buprenorphine opioid treatment, U10 DA013035) and as co-investigator for an NIH funded trial, extended-release naltrexone versus oral naltrexone for the treatment of alcohol use disorders in primary care (R01AA020836-01). In April 2017, I was awarded a CTSI pilot award ($35,000) to develop strategies for integrating text message-based interventions in Bellevue’s OBOT program. I have demonstrated the feasibility of delivering text message-based appointment reminders and smoking cessation interventions in OBOT.

I was then awarded a NIH/NIDA K23 Career Development Award ($969,069) to design and conduct usability testing of a text message-based intervention in support of OBOT Medical Management. My research and publication record reflect my commitment to leverage low-cost and ubiquitous technologies to improve access to effective pharmacotherapies for substance use disorders in primary care.