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.
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, 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.
ACAAM recently sat down with Randall Brown, MD PhD, Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Brown is also the University of Wisconsin’s Addiction Medicine Fellowship program director, having established the program in 2010 and overseen its initial accreditation in 2011.
Dr. Brown has played an important role in the evolution of addiction medicine and ACAAM. He served on the committee that wrote the Program Requirements in 2016–17 that were adopted by ACGME, and he was President of the Addiction Medicine Fellowship Directors Association in 2018 during the period that led to the establishment of ACAAM.
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.
Ariana Abid, MD, was invited to present her research titled Quality Improvement: Creating an Opioid Withdrawal Protocol for the Inpatient Setting during the Fellows Lightning Round session at the June 2021 Annual Meeting. Dr. Abid is an addiction medicine fellow at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
Dr. Abid’s presentation discussed practical and evidence-based protocol for hospitalists and other hospital care providers who are treating patients vulnerable to opioid withdrawal. This protocol incorporates the administration of buprenorphine guided using a clinical tool called the Clinical Opioid Withdrawal Scale. According to Dr. Abid’s research, this tool can be seen as parallel to the Clinical Intoxication Withdrawal Assessment for alcohol use disorder.
The American College of Addiction Medicine (ACAAM) has established itself as the go-to resource and advocate for academic addiction medicine fellowship programs. Today the organization is excited to announce it has exceeded 30 fellowship program institutional members, with a total of 32 programs currently enrolled. The ACAAM membership program was launched in May 2021.
“We are ecstatic to see fellowship programs enrolling as members and unlocking access to valuable benefits and resources for the faculty and fellows in their programs,” says ACAAM Membership Committee Chair, Alex Walley, MD. “The more programs that join our ACAAM membership coalition, the stronger our voices will be as we continue to advocate for resources needed to expand a fellowship-trained addiction medicine workforce.”
Applications for up to $250,000 in educational debt relief are being accepted until July 22, 2021, 7:30 pm ET under the federal Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program (STAR LRP).
Addiction Medicine physicians are among the medical, nursing, and behavioral/mental health clinicians eligible for the new program offered by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Recipients must commit to working for six years in a full-time substance use position at an approved facility in an area that has an elevated overdose mortality rate or is classified as a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area. Eligibility is limited to U.S. citizens, nationals, and permanent residents.
Contact: Bruce Hammond, CAE
Executive Director
847-375-4814
[email protected]
Attributable to ACAAM President, Martha Wunsch, MD FAAP DFSAM:
Bethesda, Maryland – December 17, 2020 – The American College of Academic Addiction Medicine (ACAAM) today announced the appointment of Bruce E. Hammond, Jr., CAE, as Executive Director, effective January 1, 2021. Mr. Hammond will step into the new position following the long-planned end-of-year retirement of Kevin Kunz, MD MPH DFSAM, founding ACAAM President (2008) and Executive Vice President since 2013. ACAAM was formerly known as the ABAM Foundation and Addiction Medicine Foundation.
Mr. Hammond will work closely with the ACAAM Board of Directors and ACAAM Vice President for Medical and Academic Affairs Tim Brennan, MD MPH to help fulfill the organization’s mission. ACAAM’s mission is the development and comprehensive support of addiction medicine fellowship programs, faculty and fellows at academic medical institutions and treatment centers across the U.S. There are currently 81 addiction medicine fellowship programs recognized and accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), with more programs in development.
