UB Leads Effort to Standardize Addiction Medicine Training
Richard Blondell, MD
Published November 3, 2011 This content is archived.
With a $964,000 grant, the Department of Family Medicine is forming a national council to develop curricula and standards of excellence for postgraduate education programs in addiction medicine.
The department will use the award from the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse to establish a residency assistance council comprised of leaders in addiction medicine.
Council Aims to Increase Ranks of Addiction Specialists
“With this grant we are addressing the significant need to develop innovative ways to train both primary care doctors and addiction specialists,” says Richard D. Blondell, MD, director of addictions research and professor of family medicine.
The grant also address the shortage of addiction medicine physicians in academia—individuals qualified to conduct clinical and translational research on addictions, translate their research into practice and teach medical students and residents.
Blondell Heads Residency Accreditation Review Group
Blondell, who is co-principal investigator on the grant, chairs the Residency Accreditation Review Committee of the American Board of Addiction Medicine.
He also directs the UB Department of Family Medicine’s addiction medicine residency—one of only nine such residencies in the U.S. that were accredited earlier this year.
An expert on alcohol dependence, Blondell has conducted research designed to improve outcomes for patients discharged from detoxification programs. He also studies new pharmacotherapeutic approaches to various types of addictions.
Jeffrey H. Samet, MD, of the Boston University School of Medicine, also is co-principal investigator on the grant.