Tom Smekens

Tom Smekens is the departmental statistician within the Department of Public Health at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. He is actively involved in research projects related to public health, particularly focusing on HIV prevention, infectious disease epidemiology, and statistical analysis of health data. His work spans multiple countries including Belgium, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and others in Africa.

Smekens' research interests lie at the intersection of biostatistics and public health, with a strong focus on HIV/AIDS prevention (including pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP), infectious disease transmission dynamics (such as SARS-CoV-2), and health disparities among key populations like sexual and gender minorities and sex workers. His methodological expertise includes latent class analysis, cohort studies, and mathematical modeling to inform public health interventions.

His recent publications (2023-2024) demonstrate a consistent focus on HIV prevention strategies in Belgium and Africa, utilizing diverse data sources such as insurance claims, community clinic records, and cohort surveys. Key themes include identifying priority groups for PrEP, analyzing barriers to HIV testing, and assessing the impact of public health interventions on disease transmission.

Smekens has contributed to several major research projects, including:

• Support in getting insights in SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics in Brussels region (2020-2021), focusing on contact tracing and cluster detection.
• PrEP_PROMISE: Optimise PrEP to Maximise Impact (2019-2023), a project aimed at optimizing pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention among key populations in Belgium.
• HERMETIC: Using mathematical modelling to determine the number and characteristics of people living with undiagnosed HIV (2015-2019), to inform targeted HIV testing strategies.

These projects were funded by organizations including the Research Fund - Flanders and Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

As a core member of research teams working on HIV and infectious diseases, Smekens collaborates with multidisciplinary groups across Belgium and internationally, particularly in Africa. His statistical expertise is integral to the design, analysis, and interpretation of complex public health data in these collaborative efforts.