SAj Blog Archives - Page 67 of 88

The Authors’ Own Words: Use of non-face-to-face modalities for emergency department screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (ED-SBIRT) for high-risk alcohol use: a scoping review

Nov 8, 2019 by AMERSA

The Authors’ Own Words:

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Use of non-face-to-face modalities for emergency department screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (ED-SBIRT) for high-risk alcohol use: a scoping review

Brian J. Biroscak, PhD, MS, MA; Michael V. Pantalon, PhD; James D. Dziura, PhD, MPH; Denise P. Hersey, MLS, MA; Federico E. Vaca, MD, MPH

Substance Abuse Vol. 40, Iss. 1, 2019

“To our knowledge, this review represents the first catalogue of the scope of strategies and outcomes in ED-SBIRT studies that employed non-face-to-face modalities for high-risk alcohol use. This review reveals that there is an opportunity for substance use disorder researchers to explore ED-SBIRT for high-risk alcohol use among older patients as well as for the specific needs of female ED patients. Also, there is an opportunity for additional investigation into ED-SBIRT for high-risk alcohol use among non-English-speaking patients—a line of research particularly well-suited for non-face-to-face modalities such as tablet-based screening and brief intervention in a patient’s native language. The recommendations contained within this scoping review can be the start of an agenda for improving the conduct and reporting of ED-SBIRT research that employs non-face-to-face modalities.”

The Authors’ Own Words: Interest in prescribing buprenorphine among resident and attending physicians at an urban teaching clinic.

Nov 8, 2019 by AMERSA

The Authors’ Own Words:

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Interest in prescribing buprenorphine among resident and attending physicians at an urban teaching clinic

Jocelyn R. James, MD; Leah M. Gordon, MD, MPH; Jared W. Klein, MD, MPH; Joseph O. Merrill , MD, MPH; Judith I. Tsui , MD, MPH

Substance Abuse Vol. 40, Iss. 1, 2019

“This academic medical center based study on attitudes toward buprenorphine maintenance treatment for opioid use disorder suggests that internal medicine physicians, especially those who are younger and who believe that buprenorphine is effective, have high interest in becoming waivered to prescribe buprenorphine. Integrating buprenorphine education, training, and waiver opportunities into residency programs may create a pipeline of buprenorphine providers and thereby expand access to effective opioid use disorder treatment.”

The Authors’ Own Words: Understanding the implications of the “vaping epidemic” among adolescents and young adults: a call for action

Nov 7, 2019 by AMERSA

The Authors’ Own Words:

We ask authors to describe their impressions regarding the implications of their accepted work, how their findings will change practice, and what is noteworthy about the work.

Understanding the implications of the “vaping epidemic” among adolescents and young adults: a call for action

Nicholas Chadi, MD; Scott E. Hadland , MD, MPH, MS; Sion K. Harris , PhD

Substance Abuse Vol. 40, Iss. 1, 2019

“We describe the current state of the e-cigarette epidemic among youth, which is currently the most rapidly growing trend in substance use among adolescents. This paper warns about some of the most important health risks related to e-cigarette use in adolescents, most of which contain e-cigarettes. Most importantly, we suggest several opportunities for action to help protect prevent or decrease e-cigarette use among youth and avoid losing decades of progress made in the fight against nicotine and tobacco control.”

Abstracts Presented at the 41st Annual AMERSA Conference, Washington, DC, USA, November 2017

Nov 9, 2018 by AMERSA

The 41st annual national conference of the Association of Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA) took place on November 2–4, 2017, in Washington, DC. The title of the conference was “AMERSA at 41: Reducing the Societal Impact of Alcohol and Drugs.” AMERSA, founded in 1976, is an organization whose mission is to improve health and well-being through interdisciplinary leadership in substance use education, research, clinical care, and policy. The Web-based supplement to this article includes the abstract awardees and the abstracts of all the work presented at the conference.

Adam J. Gordon (2018)

Abstracts presented at the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA) 41st Annual Conference, Washington, DC, USA, November 2017
Substance Abuse 39:1
DOI: 10.1080/08897077.2018.1441944

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Best Manuscript 2018

Nov 8, 2018 by AMERSA

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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