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Newswise The American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM) and The ABAM Foundation today announced their newly elected Directors and Officers for 2014. All are distinguished physicians from a range of medical specialties. These volunteer Directors lead ABAM in the formal certification of physicians as experts in addiction medicine, establish and accredit physician post-graduate addiction medicine training programs, and advance the quality of medical care for substance use disorders related to alcohol, tobacco and other addicting drugs, including some prescription medications.

Patrick G. OConnor, M.D., M.P.H., FACP, who serves as Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Section of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, was named ABAM/ABAM Foundation President. Other Officers for 2014 include: Robert J. Sokol, M.D., FACOG, President-Elect; Jeffrey H. Samet, M.D., M.A., M.P.H., Immediate Past President; Gail DOnofrio, M.D., M.S., Secretary; and Lon R. Hays, M.D., M.A., DFAPA, Treasurer. (See below for affiliations and complete list of Directors.)

ABAM is an independent medical specialty board established in 2007 to certify addiction medicine physicians from several specialties, including emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, preventive medicine, psychiatry and other specialties.

ABAM has come a long way since its founding, with thousands of certified physicians, active certification and Maintenance of Certification programs, and training programs at leading medical schools across North America, said Dr. OConnor. I look forward to working with my colleagues on the board in this new capacity to further advance our critical mission of advancing the field of addiction medicine and providing much-needed expertise and care to millions of individuals suffering from addiction.

The ABAM Foundation has accredited 19 fellowship programs to train physicians in addiction medicine, and plans to establish additional fellowship programs. More than 3,000 physicians have been certified in addiction medicine by ABAM.

Trained addiction medicine physicians have joined other addiction professionals in the interdisciplinary care of patients with addictive disorders. Physician specialists in addiction medicine bring unique skills and competencies to the treatment team, contributing to the care of individuals and families with a multitude of needs, using all appropriate treatment modalities.

We want addiction prevention, screening, intervention and treatment to become routine aspects of medical care wherever health care is provided and to be available for all who need it, said Dr. OConnor.

Currently, relatively few physicians screen, intervene or refer, because they have not been sufficiently educated about addiction medicine in medical school, nor trained in residencies. Until the establishment of ABAM, one barrier to this training was the lack of an addiction medicine subspecialty for primary care physicians. A subspecialty of addiction psychiatry exists within the field of psychiatry, however, this does not provide the opportunity for addiction certification for primary care physicians and those in other specialties. While there are excellent addiction psychiatry fellowships, there are no addiction medicine residencies for physicians pursuing primary care specialties among the 9,262 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited U.S. programs that are training 119,588 residents.

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American Board of Addiction Medicine Announces 2014 Officers and Directors