Dr. Helen Boucher, an internationally-renowned expert on antimicrobial resistance, has been named Chief of the Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center, effective immediately.
Dr. Boucher joined Tufts Medical Center as an Infectious Diseases Physician in 2002. She is also a Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. In 2005, she assumed the role of Director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program and added the title of Director of the Heart Transplant and Ventricular Assist Device Infectious Diseases Program in 2015. In 2018, Dr. Boucher was selected as the inaugural Director of the Tufts Center for Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance (CIMAR), a cross-disciplinary initiative of Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center. Under Dr. Boucher’s leadership, CIMAR’s mission is to deliver innovative solutions to combat antimicrobial resistance through research, policy and education.
“Dr. Boucher has long been a leading voice warning of the dangers of antibiotic resistance, especially drug-resistant infections in immunocompromised patients,” said Michael Apkon, MD, PhD, President and CEO of Tufts Medical Center. “As an esteemed researcher, educator and clinician at Tufts for nearly two decades, we are pleased that Dr. Boucher will continue to advance her extremely important work as Chief of the Division.”
Dr. Boucher is a nationally recognized authority on Staphylococcus aureus, a very common type of bacteria that can cause serious, sometimes fatal infections when it enters the bloodstream, lungs, heart or bones. Her research is focused on understanding and combatting dangerous staph infections and developing new anti-infective agents. Dr. Boucher’s work has been published in a number of high-impact academic journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Clinical Infectious Diseases, and The Annals of Internal Medicine, and she is Associate Editor of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
“Dr. Boucher is also a very accomplished educator who has been at the forefront of teaching a countless number of medical students, residents, practicing physicians and nurses about infectious disease management and infection control,” said Deeb Salem, MD, FACP, FACC, FAHA, Chair of the Department of Medicine at Tufts Medical Center. “She now joins the very illustrative group of Division chiefs that have made Tufts Medical Center a world leader in infectious disease clinical care and research.”
In 2015, Dr. Boucher was appointed a voting member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and was elected Treasurer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). That same year, she received the IDSA Citation Award for “exemplary contribution to IDSA in her work on antimicrobial resistance.” Dr. Boucher is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Physicians of Tufts Medical Center and The College of the Holy Cross. She succeeds David Snydman, MD, FACP, FIDSA, FAST, who stepped down after serving as Division Chief for the past 21 years. Dr. Snydman will continue to conduct research, mentor, teach and see patients at Tufts Medical Center.
“I am profoundly grateful to Dr. Snydman for his many achievements and outstanding contributions to Tufts Medical Center and our Division,” said Dr. Boucher. “He leaves a lasting legacy and an amazing team. I look forward to advancing Tufts MC’s role as a national and international leader in infectious diseases.”
Dr. Boucher earned her medical degree from the University of Texas Medical School in Houston and completed her internship, residency, chief residency and clinical and research fellowships at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She and her husband Norman P. Boucher, a Portfolio Manager at Putnam Investments and member of the Tufts Medical Center Board of Governors, make their home in Wellesley, MA. They have two daughters, Caroline, who attends Georgetown University, and Mary Allison “Allie,” a sophomore at Wellesley High School.
