Addiction Medicine Fellowship - The Cooper University Health Care (CUHC) Division of Addiction Medicine (AMD) requests $3,996,894 in continuation funding over a five-year period of performance to train 25 addiction medicine specialists through the existing Addiction Medicine Fellowship (AMF) program. CUHC is applying for Funding Priority 1: Team Based Care and has included documentation for the Medically Underserved Community funding preference. The purpose of this project is to prepare fellows to not only be able to sustain addiction medicine practice in medically underserved areas (MUCs), but to also have the skills and experience to start and run new programs in areas of need as future leaders of addiction medicine. Having previously received this funding and developed a program that trained 18 fellows in the first five-year grant period, 94% of which went on to work in MUCs, CUHC has a functional pipeline that successfully places highly qualified addiction medicine specialists in areas with the highest need. Fellowship curriculum will emphasis training professionals that understand the implications of social determinants of health (SDOH) as it pertains to diagnosis, treatment, and retention. Clinical rotations will include clinics that integrate primary care, mental health, and SUD treatment in both urban and rural settings as well as hospital-based locations and unique community-based settings. These tailored experiences, as well as the interface with CUHC’s longstanding medical legal partnership (MLP), will ensure fellows receive the necessary education to practice addiction medicine alongside an interdisciplinary team in medically underserved communities (MUCs). Leadership skills will be developed by offering fellows opportunities to provide didactic education, clinical oversight, and supervision to both residents and medical students at CUHC and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU). Additionally, through CUHC’s role as the Southern New Jersey Medication for Addiction Treatment Center of Excellence (SNJMATCOE), fellows will have opportunities to provide training and technical assistance to health care professionals throughout southern New Jersey. Through these teaching experiences, fellows will have the opportunity to address provider, staff, and community stigma to increase the number of physicians interested in pursuing careers in addiction medicine and addiction psychiatry. Providing this specialized training, with leadership and faculty from a broad array of base specialties, along with integrating residents from multiple training programs, helps to change the philosophy of care throughout a healthcare system. It also prepares fellows to take that philosophy into their post-fellowship work, expanding the program's impact to include the institutions and systems that fellows touch throughout their career.
