Each Fall SAj makes an appearance at AMERSA’s annual conference. Among our involvements is the presentation of three annual awards: Best Peer Review, Most Downloaded Manuscript, and Best Manuscript.

For Best Manuscript we seek to recognize a manuscript which clearly articulated research or policies designed to advance the identification and treatment of substance use disorders and/or the training of addiction care providers.

We are delighted to announce that the award for Best Manuscript 2018 goes to Randi Sokol MD, MPH, MMedEd for Why use group visits for opioid use disorder treatment in primary care? A patient-centered qualitative study.

Dr. Sokol is board certified in Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine and is certified by the Providers Clinical Support System-Medication Assisted Treatment (PCSS- MAT) program to provide Buprenorphine waiver training to physicians and physicians assistants.

She serves as a core faculty member at the Tufts Family Medicine program, where she provides direct patient care, teaches residents and medical students, conducts research, and engages in advocacy efforts, specifically around vulnerable populations that struggle with substance abuse and mental health issues. Randi led efforts to start group visits for substance abuse at her clinic, which have now been running for over 4 years.   She has also developed workflows and trainings to start providing IM naltrexone at her clinic.  As a result of these efforts, her clinic currently offers 3 group visits session/week, providing care to over  80 patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD), and taking an interdisciplinary approach to patient care, utilizing a team of providers, including OBOT (office-based opioid treatment) nurses, medical assistants, front desk staff, and other primary care physicians and physicians assistants.

Randi also teaches  residents and medical students about pain and addiction.  And, she  provides individual consultation services to clinics and residency program looking to treat addiction through a group-based model. She has recently published several papers related  Group Based Opioid Treatment (“GBOT”), a term she coined in the medical literature about how this model benefits patients (from their perspective), a systematic literature review on the efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability of GBOT and is currently working on publications around the more pratical aspects of “how to” implement GBOT in outpatient settings.

Randi helped create and runs PASS (pain and addiction support services) – an interdisciplinary team of providers (including primary care providers, addiction experts, addiction psychiatrists, psychologists, and pharmacists with pain expertise).  Over the past three years, the PASS team takes referrals from primary care physicians who are looking for support and guidance around complex cases related to chronic pain and/or addiction, invites them to participate in the team’s hour-long discussion around the case, and provides comprehensive recommendations back to the referring provider.

Randi also serves on several Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA)-wide committees related to pain and addiction, helping develop guidelines around standardized chronic pain management and providing trainings across primary care sites to support implementation. Randi is also working on a committee that is building cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT)— two of the 3 evidence-based psychotherapeutic approaches for treating chronic pain—into CHA’s primary care behavioral health integration efforts.  Currently, Randi is also working on an interdisciplinary project through the CHA Gold Fellowship to link the prescribing of Buprenorphine in the Emergency Room and Inpatient settings to outpatient treatment programs to help end the “revolving door” of re-admissions related to opioid use disorder and help link patients to long-term recovery in primary care-based OBOT programs.

In addition to her passions for pain/addiction and group visits, Randi also helped bring the treatment of Hepatitis C into the primary care setting across CHA through partnership with an Infectious Disease doctor and several primary care colleagues. She also continues to be involved in graduate medical education: she serves on the Society of Teachers in Family Medicine (STFM) Graduate Medical Education committee at the national level and is the Director of Faculty Development for Malden Family Medicine physician faculty.  She is also heavily involved in research related to her masters in medical education thesis around transformational learning and information mastery. Randi is also active in legislative advocacy, serving on the Executive Board and Legislative Affairs Committee to the Massachusetts Academy of Family Physicians. She also teaches at both the graduate and undergraduate medical levels around diverse topics with a particular passion for motivational interviewing and chronic disease management.

In her free time, Randi serves as Big Sister in the Big Sister/ Little Sister Program, loves spending time with her geriatric rescue-lab, and is an avid exerciser.

Congratulations Dr. Sokol!

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Our latest issue here.

Each fall SAj makes an appearance at AMERSA’s annual conference. Included in our is the presentation of three annual awards: Best Peer Review, Most Downloaded Manuscript, and Best Manuscript.

For Best Peer Review we seek to recognize reviews that were thorough, that considered the article within the context of current addiction literature, and provided specific recommendations for improvement or clarification to authors.

We are delighted to announce that the award for Best Peer Review 2018 goes to Sara Bartel, PhD Student.

Sara Bartel holds an Honours Degree in Psychology from the University of Saskatchewan. Currently a PhD student in the Clinical Psychology Program at Dalhousie University, she conducts and publishes research with members of the Personality Research Team and the Mood, Anxiety, and Addiction Co-morbidity Laboratory. Her PhD research investigates the impact of social network members on alcohol and cannabis use. Previous publications include: Heavy episodic drinking among romantic partners: Support for the partner influence hypothesis using a 3-Year longitudinal design and Is anxiety sensitivity a risk factor for, or complication of, alcohol misuse? A meta-analysis.

Congratulations Ms. Bartel, and thank you to all of our reviewers. SAj would not be possible without your contributions to our field.

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Our latest issue here.

Each fall SAj makes an appearance at AMERSA’s annual conference. Included in our is the presentation of three annual awards: Best Peer Review, Most Downloaded Manuscript, and Best Manuscript.

For Most Downloaded Manuscript we seek to recognize an article with the most full-text downloads within the previous two years.

We are delighted to announce that the award for Most Downloaded Manuscript 2018 goes to Stefan G.  Kertesz, MD, MSc for Turning the tide or riptide? The changing opioid epidemic.

For the first time, this award has been awarded for two years in a row (2017 & 2018). Dr. Kertesz’ paper is also currently the most downloaded SAj paper of all time.

Stefan G.  Kertesz, MD, MSc is a physician in internal medicine and addiction medicine. Presently based at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, he is also Professor at University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. He has a 22-year history of providing primary care for individuals who are homeless or similarly vulnerable, and researching health services and epidemiology related to substance use and homelessness, supported by research awards from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2002-2012) and the Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Development Branch (2008-2018).

Congratulations Dr. Kertesz!

Our latest issue here.