ACAAM recently had the pleasure of interviewing Sheila Specker, MD, one of the longest-tenured addiction medicine program directors in the country.

Dr. Specker is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota where she practices as an addiction psychiatrist in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. She is also the director of the University of Minnesota’s Addiction Medicine Fellowship, which trains physicians of all specialties in addiction and co-occurring psychiatric disorders. Dr. Specker chaired the committee that wrote the program requirements in 2016–2017 that were ultimately adopted by ACGME.

When patients are treated appropriately by medical professionals trained in addiction medicine, we can save lives and improve treatment outcomes. With that goal in mind, National Addiction Treatment Week has been created to raise awareness about the critical gap between the number of patients who need addiction treatment and their access to qualified medical professionals trained to provide evidence-based, specialty treatment. It also highlights the urgent need for clinicians to enter the field of addiction medicine and expand the qualified workforce. We hope you will join the week and our efforts to close the treatment gap and save lives.

This year’s theme is focused on inspiring the next generation.

This year, Addiction Treatment Week will focus on encouraging the next generation of clinicians and providers to learn more about addiction, evidence-based treatment, and career paths in the field of addiction medicine. Physicians who are board-certified in addiction medicine and clinicians who treat addiction daily will share why they chose to treat addiction and inspire medical students, residents, and fellows to join them in learning more about evidence-based addiction treatment.

The first ACAAM Virtual Addiction Medicine Training Recruitment Fair was held September 14, with residents from around the country meeting addiction medicine fellowships and learning about the specialty from a panel of program directors.

Thirty-nine addiction medicine fellowships participated in the event, which featured virtual breakout “tables” where interested residents could visit with fellowships one-on-one.

During the 2021 ACAAM Annual Meeting, the organization’s Anti-Racism/Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee presented a session titled "Moving Beyond Kneeling: Promoting an Anti-Racist and Racial Justice Framework within Academic Addiction Medicine Fellowships."

During the session, the committee discussed the prevalence of microaggressions, and provided three tools that can be used to help combat them as they occur. These examples were related to specific scenarios discussed during the session, whose Powerpoint slides can be downloaded here for context.

During the June 2021 Annual Meeting’s Fellows Lightning Round session, Bhavna Bali, MD, a 2021 graduate of the Interdisciplinary Addiction Medicine Fellowship at Penn State College of Medicine, shared her research titled Outpatient Buprenorphine Microinduction for Pain “A Safe Method to Transition High-Risk Patients.”

After reviewing the basics of microdosing buprenorphine, Dr. Bali’s presentation focused on a specific case where a high-risk patient on high-dose opioids was transitioned to suboxone for pain management. The patient in question had been diagnosed with Physiological Opioid Dependence with a high risk of developing Opioid Use Disorder.