On April 4, 2022, a collaborative workshop “Identifying Key Competencies for Opioid Prescriber Education” hosted by the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy and the Food and Drug Administration, included Dr. Melissa Weimer, DO, MCR, FASAM, representing ASAM. The workshop was focused on identifying gaps in existing opioid prescriber education offers, as well as core competencies that should be included in educational content for opioid prescribers and other healthcare providers, including prescriber education under a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS).

Dr. Weimer noted the need for recognition that educational needs are different for the practicing clinician and the health profession student or resident in training, remarking "very few allopathic and osteopathic medical schools provide enough training to satisfy the minimum requirement for the DEA X waiver to prescribe buprenorphine. Indeed, most medical students do not receive any training on the neurobiology of addiction, screening and diagnosis of substance use disorder, rationale for long-term treatment for SUD, and efficacy of various treatments. Many other health professions students such as PAs, NPs, midwives are not receiving training at all."

Legislation has been proposed to address these needs via the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act of 2021, Dr. Weimer mentioned, which is supported by ASAM. Dr. Weimer is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health at Yale School of Medicine and Yale School of Public Health, Director of the Yale Addiction Medicine Consult Service, and Associate Program Director for the Yale Addiction Medicine Fellowship program.