Jerrold Blair Leikin

Jerrold Blair Leikin, MD, FACP, FACEP, FACMT, FAACT, FACOEM, FASAM, is currently an Adjunct Clinical Professor in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Service of UI Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Professor of Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science in North Chicago, Ill.

In 1980, Dr. Leikin received my medical degree from the Chicago Medical School. He then completed a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine at Northwestern University (1984), followed by a three-year preceptorship/fellowship training in Medical Toxicology at Cook County Hospital and University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Leikin is currently Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Medical Toxicology, and Addiction Medicine. 

Dr. Leikin served as the Associate Director of the Emergency Department at Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago from 1998-2001.  During this time, he was also the Medical Director of the Rush Poison Control Center and served as Medical Director of the United States Drug Testing Laboratory (from 1991 -1996).  He was also the Medical Director of PROSAR (located in St. Paul, MN); a national call center devoted to industrial exposures and product safety issues, up until December 2013.

Dr. Leikin has presented more than 200 research abstracts at national meetings (primarily at the North American Congress of Clinical Toxicology) and has published more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals.  He is the co-editor of the Poisoning and Toxicology Handbook (now in its fourth edition), published by CRC Press, and the American Medical Association Handbook of First Aid and Emergency Care, published by Random House (New York).  He is also the co-editor, with Dr. Robin McFee, of the book Toxico-terrorism (McGraw-Hill) and the Handbook of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Agent Exposure (CRC Press), both published in 2007.  Dr. Leikin was also the co-editor of the American Medical Association Complete Medical Encyclopedia, published by Random House in 2003.  He is presently the Editor-in-Chief of the primary care journal, Disease-a-Month, published by Elsevier. He served on the Illinois State Board of Health from 2016 through 2019. In October 2021, Dr. Leikin received the Harm Reduction Award from the GBF Foundation based in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Dr. Leikin offers a Medical Toxicology perspective as a current board member of ISAM. The overlap between Medical Toxicology and Addiction Medicine is extensive; as a result, Dr. Leikin previously collaborated with the ISAM Board prior to his current term as a board member, and he has worked on several resolutions & policy statements for the Illinois State Medical Society (ISMS). His most recent interest and advocacy activity focus upon cannabis legislation (and its consequences to vulnerable populations), along with expanding addiction services to the adolescent population. Dr. Leikin hopes to incorporate clinical & forensic toxicology expertise into future activities within ISAM.