Sabrina Annick Assoumou MD, MPH
Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases
Assistant Professor, Infectious Diseases
771 Albany St | (617) 414-5282sabrina.assoumou@bmc.org
sassoumo@bu.edu

Sections
Infectious Diseases
Biography
Sabrina A. Assoumou, MD MPH, is the inaugural Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Professor of Medicine and Associate Professor of Medicine at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. She is also an attending physician in the section of Infectious Diseases at Boston Medical Center. She is a clinician-investigator who cares for patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) at the BUSM/BMC’s Centers for Infectious Diseases. Her research focuses on medical complications of substance use including HIV and Hepatitis C virus (HCV). She is also interested in models of care and on improving the continuum of care for individuals with HIV and/or HCV. She is currently the Principal Investigator on an NIH K23 Mentored Career Development Award to improve linkage to care after testing for HIV and HCV and an NIH R01 to increase uptake of HIV prevention measures.
Dr. Assoumou has published in multiple journals including Clinical Infectious Diseases, AIDS, Annals of Internal Medicine and the Journal of American Medical Association. Her work has also been included in the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD)/ Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recommendations for testing, managing and treating HCV (Assoumou et al., Clin Infect Dis 2018) as well as HCV testing recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Assoumou et al., Clin Infect Dis 2018 and Assoumou et al., Clin Infect Dis. 2019). Dr. Assoumou has also presented her findings at the National Academy of Sciences to the panel tasked with developing a National Strategy for the Elimination of Hepatitis B and C and at international scientific meetings such as IDWeek and the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI).
Dr. Assoumou graduated magna cum laude from Williams College and obtained her medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She then completed a combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics residency at Brown University and an Infectious Diseases Fellowship at Harvard University’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where she was awarded the Finland Award for Research Excellence. She also earned a Masters of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Assoumou received an Excellence in Teaching Hospital-Based Faculty Award at BMC in 2017. She was also recognized as the Distinguished Faculty of the Month in April 2020 for her service to the BUSM community in teaching, service on committees, mentoring of students, trainees and junior faculty. The same year she also received a Department of Medicine Evans Junior Faculty Research Merit Award recognizing an outstanding record of scholarship and research. Dr. Assoumou’s impact on the medical campus and beyond culminated in 2021 in her installation as the inaugural Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Professor of Medicine which honors Dr. Sullivan’s contributions to his alma mater – Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and to the medical field as former Health and Human Services Secretary and the first Dean of Morehouse Medical School. She is also a member of the 2024-2026 cohort of the New Voices Program at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.
Dr. Assoumou has also contributed to COVID 19-related efforts as part of the NIH-funded Massachusetts Community Engagement Alliance (MA-CEAL), and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ “Trust the Facts, Get the Vax” public awareness campaign. Further, she was appointed by Mayor Michelle Wu to the City of Boston’s COVID-19 Advisory Committee. She has also become a trusted source for local, national and international news outlets such as BBC Worldwide, ABC Australia, NBC News, Reuters, Bloomberg, Newsweek, TIME, PBS, The Boston Globe, The Bay State Banner, Boston 25 as well as local NPR affiliates WBUR and WGBH.
Education
Medicine-Pediatrics, MD, University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry
Clinical Evaluation/Research, MPH, Harvard School of Public Health
Biology, BA, Williams College
Publications
Huerta A, Salim E, Bonilla HV, Miller SE, Assoumou SA. Lessons Learned Through Adaptation of a Model Successful during the COVID Pandemic: Expanding HIV Self-testing for Persons Who Use Drugs. J Addict Med. 2024 Dec 12. PMID: 39665439.
Published on 10/1/2024Chatterjee A, Stewart EA, Assoumou SA, Chrysanthopoulou SA, Zwick H, Harris RA, O'Dea R, Schackman BR, White LF, Linas BP. Health and Economic Outcomes of Offering Buprenorphine in Homeless Shelters in Massachusetts. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Oct 01; 7(10):e2437233. PMID: 39412807.
Published on 8/8/2024Hao B, Hu Y, Adams WG, Assoumou SA, Hsu HE, Bhadelia N, Paschalidis IC. A GPT-based EHR modeling system for unsupervised novel disease detection. J Biomed Inform. 2024 Sep; 157:104706. PMID: 39121932.
Published on 7/11/2024De La Hoz A, Graves K, Bernstein JA, Assoumou SA. HIV and hepatitis C virus-related misinformation may contribute to rising rates of infection and suboptimal clinical outcomes among persons with substance use. AIDS Care. 2024 Dec; 36(12):1771-1780. PMID: 38991115.
Published on 6/17/2024Assoumou SA, Bonilla HV, Ruiz-Mercado G, Von Lossnitzer M, Baker R, Crawford ND, Bernstein JA. Community-based HIV Self-testing for Persons Who Use Drugs Can Contribute to Reaching Ending the HIV Epidemic in the US (EHE) Goals. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2024 Jun; 11(6):ofae189. PMID: 38887480.
Published on 2/1/2024Stewart J, Ruiz-Mercado G, Sperring H, Pierre CM, Assoumou SA, Taylor JL. Addressing Unmet PrEP Needs in Women: Impact of a Laboratory-Driven Protocol at an Urban, Essential Hospital. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2024 Mar; 11(3):ofae056. PMID: 38464490.
Published on 1/17/2024Assoumou SA, Bonilla HV, Vautour L, White C, Read Newcomb A, Kibbe D, Goldie J, Merrill A, Monahan M, Linas BP, Drainoni ML, Pierre CM, Graham R. A Communications Campaign to Build Confidence in Covid-19 Vaccines: The Boston Medical Center Experience. NEJM Catal Innov Care Deliv. 2024 Feb; 5(2). PMID: 38813133.
Published on 12/20/2023Wurcel AG, Guardado R, Grussing ED, Koutoujian PJ, Siddiqi K, Senst T, Assoumou SA, Freund KM, Beckwith CG. Racial differences in testing for infectious diseases: An analysis of jail intake data. PLoS One. 2023; 18(12):e0288254. PMID: 38117818.
Published on 10/28/2023Morgan JR, Assoumou SA. The limits of innovation: Directly addressing known challenges is necessary to improve the real-world experience of novel medications for opioid use disorder. Acad Emerg Med. 2023 Dec; 30(12):1285-1287. PMID: 37793818.
Published on 9/26/2023Frimpong JA, Parish CL, Feaster DJ, Gooden LK, Nelson MC, Matheson T, Siegel K, Haynes L, Linas BP, Assoumou SA, Tross S, Kyle T, Liguori TK, Toussaint O, Annane D, Metsch LR. A study protocol for Project I-Test: a cluster randomized controlled trial of a practice coaching intervention to increase HIV testing in substance use treatment programs. Trials. 2023 Sep 26; 24(1):609. PMID: 37749635.
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View full list of 298 media mentions.