Hansel Tookes
University of Miami, FL·Public Health & Epidemiology
People who inject drugs face high rates of HIV, hepatitis C, overdose, bacterial infections and sexually transmitted infections, and worse health outcomes overall than people who do not inject drugs. About 11% of new HIV infections in the United States are attributed to injection drug use, and recent HIV outbreaks have been driven by the opioid and stimulant crises.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Social Science
- Topics
people who inject drugs
HIV prevention
PrEP
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2028
What they work on
- Determine whether the Comprehensive-TeleHealth-concieRge model increases engagement in HIV prevention compared with offsite referral plus peer navigation, in a randomized trial of 350 people who inject drugs recruited at a low barrier clinic in Miami.
- Measure engagement biologically using tenofovir on dried blood spots, recent cabotegravir or lenacapavir injections for HIV prevention, or buprenorphine on urine drug screens at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months.
- Examine long-term clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of the comprehensive telehealth model using economic analysis and long-term modeling.
- Assess implementation and scalability of the model with mixed methods, including uptake of HIV, hepatitis C and sexually transmitted infection testing and hepatitis C cure (sustained virologic response).
More about the research
Effective tools exist, including rapid HIV testing, PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis, medication taken to prevent HIV), antiretroviral treatment and medications for opioid use disorder, but they often fail to reach this population through traditional clinics. This project tests whether bundling them into one accessible, trusted setting improves engagement.
Why it matters
People who inject drugs are central to national goals of cutting new HIV infections sharply by 2030, yet they are poorly served by conventional clinics. If this trial shows that a telehealth-enhanced low barrier clinic increases uptake of PrEP, medications for opioid use disorder and hepatitis C cure, it could establish a new, scalable standard of care that prevents HIV infections and reduces overdose and infection deaths in this population.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Susan Sherman
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Public Health & Epidemiology
Adapt Mobile SPARC outreach services for women who use drugs by identifying factors that help or hinder service use, through in-depth interviews with 40 women and 5 staff members.
Oluwaseun Falade-Nwulia
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Adapt an existing social network intervention to rural settings with community input, so peer educators can distribute HIV self-testing kits and link people who use drugs to telemedicine care at community organizations.
Karen Johnson
University of Georgia, GA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test in a randomized controlled trial whether E-WORTH South increases PrEP uptake and reduces condomless vaginal and anal sex acts at 6 months among 230 women aged 18–65 under non-carceral correctional supervision in two Alabama counties.
The school
University of Miami: 30 labs on PI Pages, $559M a year on research, 297 research doctorates a year.
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