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Professor of Emergency Medicine, UMass Chan Medical School

Kavita M. Babu, MD, focuses her clinical and research energy preventing overdose deaths. She is Chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at UMass Memorial Health and a Professor of Emergency Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School. She conducted a NIDA-funded investigation of patients with near-fatal overdoses who presented to the Emergency Department and was first author of a New England Journal of Medicine article titled, “Prevention of Opioid Overdose.”

After completing her undergraduate, medical and residency training at Brown University, Dr. Babu completed a medical toxicology fellowship at UMass. In 2012, she assumed the role of Fellowship Director in Medical Toxicology there, then Division Chief in 2017. In 2017, she founded the Overdose Prevention Fund, a philanthropic effort aimed at preventing overdose deaths. In the summer of 2018, she was appointed the Chief Opioid Officer for the UMass Health System, helming the Opioid Crisis Task Force which focuses on improving opioid prescribing, increasing access to medications for opioid use disorders, providing education, and combating stigma. In 2020, she became the director of the Road to Care mobile addiction service in Worcester, caring for individuals with opioid use disorder in local congregate living settings and encampments to mitigate barriers in accessing care.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor of Emergency Medicine, UMass Chan Medical School