April 1st: The Affordable Care Act (2010) brings an opportunity to increase the integration of addiction treatment into the health care system. With the anticipated expansion of addiction care services in primary care, challenges, such as workforce training, can be expected.
A team of researchers from Ireland, Canada and Portland, Oregon, presented their experiences and challenge of addiction medicine training of primary care professionals at a Boston conference in October 2014. The conference was dedicated to Addiction Health Services Research.
The presentation outlined the set up and content of some of the current drug education projects in medical school, fellowship and residency in Ireland, Canada and Portland, Oregon. The speakers used examples from three educational initiatives to generate ideas applicable to each setting and help overcome integration barriers: the St. Paul’s Hospital Goldcorp Addiction Medicine Fellowship (http://www.addictionmedicinefellowship.org), the feasibility study on alcohol screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT) for opioid agonist patients in Ireland (PINTA study), and the team-based SBIRT Oregon project (http://www.sbirtoregon.org).
Read more in the conference proceedings published in a recent supplement of the Addiction Science & Clinical Practice journal. http://www.ascpjournal.org/content/10/S1/A28
Addiction Science & Clinical Practice provides a “forum for clinically relevant research and perspectives that contribute to improving the quality of care for people with unhealthy alcohol, tobacco, or other drug use.” Read the published abstract at: http://www.ascpjournal.org/or
watch the conference presentation at: https://prezi.com/qptvun1i0am0/integrating-addiction-medicine-training-into-medical-school-and-residency-curricula/
Klimas, J., Rieb, L., Bury, G., Muench, J., O’Toole, T., Rieckman, T., & Cullen, W. (2015). Integrating addiction medicine training into medical school and residency curricula. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 10(Suppl 1), A28.