Olutobi (Tobi) A. Sanuade, Ph.D., MPhil., is a population health and implementation scientist and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health Sciences at the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine. His research focuses on improving the implementation of evidence-based interventions for the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease and other noncommunicable diseases. His work integrates implementation science, community-engaged research, and mixed-methods approaches to strengthen health systems and improve population health outcomes, particularly in settings disproportionately affected by cardiovascular disease.

Prior to joining the University of Houston, Sanuade served as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences, Division of Health Systems Innovation and Research, at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah. In this role, he contributed to multiple interdisciplinary projects focused on cardiovascular disease prevention, implementation science, and health systems innovation. He was also embedded in the NHLBI-funded Community Intervention to Reduce Cardiovascular Disease in Chicago (CIRCL-Chicago) Implementation Research Center, where he contributed to implementation measurement and evaluation and conducted qualitative and mixed-methods analyses aimed at improving the adoption of hypertension control strategies.

Sanuade has been involved in several large-scale national and global research collaborations focused on hypertension control and cardiovascular disease prevention. These include the Hypertension Treatment in Nigeria (HTN) Program, a multilevel hypertension control intervention implemented across 60 primary health care centers in Nigeria. The program integrates standardized treatment protocols, team-based care, and health system strengthening strategies to improve cardiovascular outcomes and inform scalable models for noncommunicable disease care in low-resource settings. He was also a co-investigator on an NHLBI-funded clinical study assessing whether initiating treatment with ultra–low-dose quadruple-combination therapy improves blood pressure control compared with guideline-recommended monotherapy in patients with hypertension in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in Chicago.

Through his research, Sanuade is known for advancing implementation science methods to improve the adoption, scale-up, and sustainability of evidence-based interventions. His research has contributed to understanding how health system factors, implementation strategies, and non-medical drivers of health influence the translation of evidence into practice. His work frequently applies mixed-methods research, implementation frameworks, and community-engaged approaches to address real-world barriers to implementing evidence-based interventions in both high-income and low- and middle-income country settings.

Sanuade has received formal training in dissemination and implementation science through the Mountain States Partnership for Community-Engaged Dissemination and Implementation Science, the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease Implementation Science School and the WHO Massive Open Online Course on implementation research. His research emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and the integration of implementation science with population health, health equity, and health systems research.

Earlier in his career, Sanuade was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Medical Social Sciences and the Center for Global Cardiovascular Health at Northwestern University. He also served as a Research Associate at the Institute of Advanced Studies and as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Global Health at University College London, where he contributed to The Lancet Nigeria Commission.

Looking ahead, Sanuade’s research program focuses on leveraging advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance engagement with and implementation of evidence-based interventions for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases. His future work aims to integrate AI-enabled tools with implementation science frameworks to improve patient engagement, optimize decision support for clinicians and health systems, and accelerate the scale-up of effective cardiovascular disease and NCD prevention strategies across diverse populations in the United States and globally.