Addiction Education, all strata

 

#1: The link and abstract below (NPR) relating to education in addiction, and career choices by medical students and residents, reflect in part a recent emphasis by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) on addiction recognition and intervention as suitable topics for undergraduate medical education.  It’s encouraging; more residents and students appear interested in the field.  The article principally focuses on the development of addiction medicine fellowships as the companion pathway to addiction psychiatry for an understanding of treatment of addictions. There is truth to this, but it overlooks the availability of opportunities during undergraduate medical education and in the residencies that have an abundance of patients with substance use disorders. That could, of course, be all, depending on the sensitivity of your criteria: patients with substance use disorders are regrettably over-represented in orthopedics, in family medicine, in internal medicine…in fact, it requires more imagination than I have to name a specialty which escapes impact.  Even in neonatology and in the effects of addiction on the developing child and the family, thus pediatrics; and, most morbidly, in pathology.

 

The LCME relies principally on the AAMC for curricular input; at present most of the resources freely available focus on brief intervention techniques and on opioid use disorders, perhaps reflecting the American preoccupation of the past decade with opioids.  Similarly, the American College of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) brings together the residency review committees (RRCs) to set standards for graduate medical education; dissimilarly, it does not cull from a resource database that is equally available to all disciplines.  During the past half-century professional organizations have stepped up to provide  curricula but in a disparate fashion. Samples include Project Mainstream, of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA), much of which is good but dated; and ASAM’s own online courses, targeted rather more toward the practicing clinician and the addiction postgraduate fellow.  In brief, undergraduate medical education and even graduate medical education are not saturated with addiction training materials; which is something of an open invitation.  Some samples follow.

 

- AAMC MedEd Portal addiction courses

- Project mainstream AMERSA 

- Harvard free CME on addiction

- 2011 Review of Quality of Literature in Medical Education in Substance Abuse (sic)

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#2:  I add the following as teasers, having touched on UME and GME; this is about CME (MOC).

The Australian Doctors in Recovery (ADR) 24th Annual Meeting took place last week in Melbourne, Victoria, AU.  The program is provided for its single academic day; it a cheerful lot of intensely inquisitive doctors in the field.  Next year’s session (March 27-29) is , of course, the 25th annual, and is likely to be in Sydney, New South Wales.  It pays to plan early; the 2019 program is provided as a sampler.

 

The latter item is more prospective, the impending Hawai`i Addictions Conference, #19, Friday 10 May 2019.

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ADR Melbourne curriculum 15 MAR 2019, 24th Annual Meeting: 

Academic Day -Final Program, Friday 15 March 2019 Arabesque Room, Mantra Southbank Hotel 31City Road, Southbank, Melbourne 3006

Addressing the addict/alcoholic & family at the bedside.  Dr. J. Randle Adair

Morning tea

Management of pain in the context of previous substance abuse. Dr. David Jacka

Cultures of Addiction and the Recovering Physician Tribe.  Dr. William F. Haning,

Lunch, Spire Restaurant, sharing style.

The potential of N-Acetylcysteine in addictive and comorbid disorders. Professor Michael Berk

How to care for the stimulant addict. Dr William Huang

Afternoon tea

12-step Recovery in medical practice. Dr. Naham (Jack) Warhaft

The dilemma of “..foreign born" medical professionals with addiction histories. Dr. J. Randle Adair.

Panel Discussion. 2019 lnternational Doctors in Alcoholics Anonymous, Knoxville USA Meeting Presentation.

Close. Dinner. 3-courses. Spire Restaurant, Mantra Southbank.

……….

Hawai`i Addiction Conference (18th),  University of Hawai`i John A. Burns School of Medicine at The Queen’s Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawai`i

http://jabsom.hawaii.edu/events/may-10-2019-addictions-conference-queens-conference-center/ , and

http://blog.hawaii.edu/dop/hac-2019/

Friday 10 May 2019

7:30am, Welcome, breakfast, and general comments on the field, William Haning, M.D.

8:00am Grand Rounds Presentation:  Families and Addictions, Jerry Moe, M.A.

9:00am Primary Care Integration of Substance Use Disorders, Robin Miyamoto, Ph.D.

9:30am Youth Vaping Epidemic, Forrest Batz, Ph.D.

10:00am Networking Coffee Break

10:15am Medical Aspects of Methamphetamine Use, Todd Seto, M.D.

10:45am Opioid Use Disorders, Richard Rawson, Ph.D.

11:45am Naloxone, Heather Lusk & Thaddeus Pham

12:15pm Lunch & Poster Sessions

1:15pm Making AA Work for your Patients, Stephen Jurd, M.D.

2:15pm Motivational Interviewing, Anthony Giardina, Ph.D.

2:45pm Networking Coffee Break

3:00pm Long-Term Cannabis Use, George Mammen, Ph.D.

3:30pm Marijuana Use & Inpatient Outcomes for those with Schizophrenia, Steven Williams, M.D.

4:00pm Advocating Brain Health, Sean Munnelly, M.D.

  - W. Haning, MD