The Medical Education and Research Foundation for the Treatment of Addiction (MERF) is offering scholarship opportunities for residents, fellows, and faculty to attend the 2023 California Society of Addiction Medicine (CSAM) Review Course and the MERF 4-day Mentored Learning Experience, including a half-day preconference workshop: Motivational Interviewing for Busy Clinicians and Educators.

This year's CSAM-MERF Conferences will be held from August 30-September 2 at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, San Diego CA.

It's time to renew your ACAAM Membership

Your ACAAM membership runs on an academic year (July 1 - June 30). Find your 2023-2024 membership invoice in your account and renew before your benefits expire on June 30. Visit www.acaam.org/login and click 'My Profile' to access your membership information. 

Renew Your Individual Membership

We look forward to Trainees, Fellows, and Recent Fellowship Program Graduates to continue on the renewal pathway to grow a network of addiction medicine peers and further your knowledge in the field. Trainees and Fellows will renew as a Recent Fellowship Program Graduate, and Recent Graduates will renew as Regular Members. Regular Members will continue as Regular Members. 

The Successes of the 2023 ACAAM Annual Meeting

More than 130 attendees took part in ACAAM’s first in-person Annual Meeting before 2020, and the event was outstanding!

Event Kickoff Draws Rave Reviews
Kicking off the event, Drs. Ekene Ojukwu from the University of California, San Francisco, and Kenny Morford from Yale University, led attendees on an exploration of Visual Thinking Strategies, a teaching approach using art and humanities to foster open discussions, enable individual reflection, share perspectives, and recognize and challenge biases. Attendees participated in small group exercises to discuss art and engaged in report-outs with their colleagues. Many attendees had never participated in an exercise like this and said they planned to take it back to their institutions.

Important Reminders for Attending #ACAAM2023

Meeting Location:

Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center

ACAAM Hosts Open Event For Anyone Interested in Addiction Medicine

As part of our mission and dedication to help grow the addiction medicine workforce, ACAAM will be hosting a virtual Specialty Showcase for residents, medical students, practicing physicians, or anyone with general interest in learning more about the field of addiction medicine May 9 at 3 PM EDT.

This virtual informational session, led by ACAAM President Jeanette Tetrault, MD FACP FASAM, and Vice President for Medical and Academic Affairs, Tim Brennan, MD MPH, will provide an opportunity for anyone, no matter where they are in their career or decision-making process, to learn more about addiction medicine fellowships and the field as a potential career path.

#ACAAM2023's Registration Ends March 31

Get your tickets while they last! 

Starting the evening of Tuesday, April 11, plan to join us for an educational offering and Welcome Reception to kick start our meeting, networking opportunities, and so much more.

AMERSA 2023 Call for Abstracts Now Open Through May 1

AMERSA is now accepting submissions for abstracts, workshops, conference awards, and award nominations.

IMPORTANT DEADLINES 

Consideration of a Voluntary Locking Functionality for Program Rank Order Lists

The National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP) is evaluating the utility of a proposed Rank Order List Lock functionality for programs and requests your input. The public comment period will be open through Wednesday, April 19, 2023. Read the call for public comment in its entirety and access the survey on the NRMP website.

We appreciate you taking time to review the proposal and provide your perspective so discussion about the proposed functionality, including community feedback, can be held at the May 2023 meeting of the NRMP Board of Directors.

ACAAM's 4th Annual Graduation Event

When:
Thursday, June 8
6:00 pm EDT

Where:
Zoom link. No registration necessary.

What:

Brief live remarks will be given by George Koob, PhD, Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and recorded remarks will be provided by Admiral Rachel L. Levine, MD, Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Nora Volkow, MD, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

ACAAM President-Elect, Dr. Walley, Receives 2023 Training Directors Award

We'd like to congratulate the American College of Academic Addiction Medicine's Board of Directors President-Elect, Alexander Walley, MD MSc, for being the recipient of the American Society of Addiction Medicine - ASAM 2023 Training Directors Award. Dr. Walley will be presented this award at ASAM's Annual Conference this April, the same week as the ACAAM Annual Meeting.  Congratulations!

About the 2023 ASAM Training Directors Award:
This award recognizes outstanding training in the evaluation, treatment, research and teaching of substance use disorders. Recipients of this award are training directors for accredited addiction medicine programs who have demonstrated leadership and vision in local program development, curriculum development and innovation in teaching and training methods. The recipients of this award must be noted to inspire trainees and colleagues alike with a passion for the practice of addiction medicine. 

About Dr. Walley:
Dr. Walley is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and a general internist and addiction medicine specialist at Boston Medical Center (BMC). He has been the director of the Boston Medical Center Addiction Medicine Fellowship program since 2011. His research focus is on the medical complications of substance use, specifically HIV and overdose. He provides primary care and office-based addiction treatment for patients with HIV at Boston Medical Center and on the inpatient Addiction Consult Service, which he founded in 2015. He is the medical director for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Opioid Overdose Prevention Pilot Program. Since 2007, the MDPH program has trained over 80,000 people in Massachusetts’s communities, including people who use opioids, people in recovery, and their social networks. He graduated from Harvard College, and received his MD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Masters of Science in epidemiology from Boston University School of Public Health.

Attend the ACAAM Annual Meeting: https://www.acaam.org/2023-annual-meeting 

As you may know, in late February, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced proposed permanent rules for the prescribing of controlled medications via telemedicine. Members can learn more about these general rules here, and review the formal proposed rules here. 

There is a 30-day public comment period which ends on March 31, 2023, so if you are interested in providing input, you may do so by clicking here and clicking on the Green “Submit a Formal Comment” button at the top of the screen. Please keep in mind that all comments received, including attachments and other supporting materials, are considered part of the public record and will be made available by DEA for public inspection online, here.

Opening Plenary: Equity Matters: Integrating and Enhancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Graduate Medical Education
We are thrilled to announce Pilar Ortega, MD MGM, will present the Opening Plenary. Dr. Ortega, a nationally and internationally recognized expert in linguistically and culturally appropriate health care, recently joined the ACGME as Vice President, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. An emergency medicine-trained physician, she has more than 15 years' experience creating and evaluating innovative programs throughout the medical education continuum. Dr. Ortega will discuss DEI trends across the GME landscape, ACGME priorities related to creation of inclusive clinical learning environments, and share strategies for integrating and enhancing DEI efforts into a fellowship/GME program. 

Closing Plenary: Striving to Improve Addiction, Mental Health, and City Systems Through Inclusive Leadership
We are pleased to welcome Kevin M. Simon, MD, as our closing plenary speaker. Dr. Simon serves as the city of Boston’s first Chief Behavioral Health Officer and is also an attending psychiatrist at Boston Children's Hospital, an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a Commonwealth Fund Fellow in Health Policy at Harvard University, and the Medical Director of Wayside Youth & Family Support Network. A former REACH Scholar and graduate of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Addiction Medicine Fellowship, Dr. Simon will provide an overview of the intersection of mental health and substance use and the importance of building inclusive systems of care to impact healthcare equity. He will discuss the significance of prevention, specifically among adolescents, and the importance of its inclusion in a fellowship’s curriculum. Additionally, Dr. Simon will share thoughts on the value of fellowship training, strategies for building the addiction medicine workforce pipeline, his career path, and the work he is doing for the City of Boston.

Application Deadline Upcoming for Additional Funded GME Slots 

Section 126 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA), 2021, makes available an additional 1,000 FTE resident cap slots phased in at a rate of no more than 200 slots per year beginning in fiscal year 2023. The deadline for institutions to apply for these slots for the 2024-25 academic year, which can be used for Addiction Medicine Fellowship slots, is March 31, 2023.

With an overwhelming number of submissions, we are looking forward to the 2023 Fellow Lightning Round presentations at this year’s annual meeting. These sessions will feature 5-minute, 5-slide presentations on original research, case reports, as well as clinical and educational innovations. See the list of concurrent sessions.

See the submissions: Fellow Lightning Round 

For the 2023 appointment year, addiction medicine participated in the National Resident Matching Program Medicine and Pediatric Specialties Match. Addiction medicine will once again participate for the 2024 appointment year. In the coming month, ACAAM will contact all addiction medicine fellowship training programs regarding participation plans. Be on the lookout for an email from ACAAM staff to include a Match participation timeline, links to valuable resources, and program participation form. ACAAM will continue to play a sponsorship and convening role related to the Match and is committed to doing everything we can to support physicians in becoming experts in addiction medicine.

#ACAAM2023's Early Bird Registration pricing will end on January 31

Save now and get your tickets while they last! Starting the evening of Tuesday, April 11, plan to join us for an educational offering and Welcome Reception to kick start our meeting, networking opportunities, and so much more! Check out the preliminary schedule. 

Registration Now Open - Early Bird Special

Hotel and Travel

ACAAM Partners on Addiction Medicine Advocacy Conference

ACAAM will be partnering with American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), the American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT), the American Osteopathic Academy of Addiction Medicine (AOAAM), and the American Psychological Association’s Society of Addiction Psychology, in the 2023 Addiction Medicine Advocacy Conference, which takes place virtually on March 6-7, 2023.

Learn more about travel and lodging for the ACAAM Annual Meeting

ACAAM and ASAM are pleased to announce that in April 2023, each organization will be holding its live and in-person annual conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, right outside of Washington, DC. The location and timing of these respective conferences were designed with convenience in mind and to allow anyone interested in attending both to do so with ease.

Hotel and Travel

• For more information about ACAAM’s conference (April 11-12), click here. For more information about ASAM’s conference (April 13-16), click here.
• The Gaylord National Resort is the ONLY hotel contracted for the ACAAM Annual Meeting, as well as the ASAM Annual Conference.
• Book your room through the official website (linked below) or by calling the hotel directly.

Meeting Location

Reserve Now

Room Reservation Deadline: Monday, March 13, 2023 (Based on Availability)

Virtual Pediatric Rotations at Boston Children's Hospital Pediatric Addiction Medicine Fellowship

The Boston Children’s Hospital Pediatric Addiction Medicine Fellowship is taking applications from fellows in other addiction medicine programs (deadline January 6, 2023) for one-week virtual learning experiences in the first half of 2023 (January-May).

Because of the particular challenges posed by the cognitive and developmental changes that mark adolescence, treatment for adolescent substance use requires a distinctive approach that recognizes and respects adolescents’ desire for independence while understanding the special vulnerabilities of this period of life.

Happy Giving Tuesday!

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