The University of Minnesota’s Department of Psychiatry will be spearheading a new residency program as part of 10 new addiction medicine training programs for doctors nationwide that are being accredited by the American Board of Addiction Medicine.
Since 1982, the U has had a fellowship program in addiction medicine for physicians from varied specialties who have already completed one residency program in their chosen fields. Historically they have partnered with the VA Medical Center. But this is the first time that the program requirements are being standardized and expanded through ABAM’s accreditation. The U is also bringing in another partner that will serve as the third site for residents — Hennepin County Medical Center.
“Until this point, there was no accreditation for addiction medicine and … the training programs did not have any standardization, so it was left entirely up to the individual program to decide what the rotations were,” said Sheila Specker, associate professor at the U’s Department of Psychiatry and program director for the new training program.
The goal of the 10 programs being accredited nationwide is one and the same: to provide doctors from different specialties the tools to identify and treat patients with substance abuse.
“The need is great,” said Kevin Kunz, president of the ABAM and the ABAM Foundation, to the American Medical Association. “Addiction and substance abuse disorders are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the United States.”
Specker agrees.
“I think the goals of the fellowship are to train more physicians that are competent in the assessment and treatment of addiction given that it is such a large public health problem, problem in society, problem in medicine. So having more physicians that can provide this kind of treatment will reduce healthcare costs,” she said.
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ABAM has accredited four residents per year at the U, but Specker all but guaranteed that funding challenges will mean a fewer number of physicians can be supported through the program.
Money is tight and each resident will have to be paid $55,000 per year based on the university’s requirements.
“It’s up to each institution to come up with the funding and support for the program,” Specker said, adding that the U is working with the VA Medical Center and HCMC to share costs. “It’s not inexpensive to do these training programs.”
Funding challenges are jostling with a real healthcare need. In 2007, 27,658 unintentional drug overdose deaths occurred nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number is second only to motor vehicle crash deaths as leading causes of unintentional injury death in that year.
