Addiction Medicine Fellowship

Overview

Twenty-three million Americans have a substance use disorder (SUD), yet only 10% receive treatment annually. Among hospitalized patients, 22% have an active drug or alcohol use disorder. Despite the growing prevalence of SUDs, few physicians have the opportunity to gain specialty training in addiction medicine.

The Massachusetts General Hospital Addiction Medicine Fellowship will prepare physicians for clinical and academic careers in Addiction Medicine with a particular focus on developing and enhancing evidence-based addiction prevention and treatment services for all patients, including those vulnerable to health disparities because of poverty, race, culture, age, gender, disability or stigma.

Through a combination of inpatient and outpatient care spanning diverse settings, fellows will receive training in the knowledge and skills to become expert clinicians and leaders in the field of Addiction Medicine. Clinical rotations include:

• Inpatient consultation on the Addiction Consult Team at Mass General
• Outpatient addiction treatment in a community-based opioid treatment program
• Urgent and transitional addiction treatment in the Mass General outpatient Bridge Clinic
• Outpatient addiction treatment integrated into Primary Care at three Mass General community health centers: Chelsea HealthCare Center, Charlestown HealthCare Center, Revere HealthCare Center and Internal Medicine Associates
• Urgent addiction treatment in the Emergency Department at Mass General
• Outpatient alcohol addiction treatment in the Alcohol Liver Center at Mass General
• Addiction treatment at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program
• Dual-diagnosis treatment in Mass General’s specialty outpatient clinics for adults and adolescents
• Coordinated treatment and care for pregnant and parenting women with substance use disorders and their families at the MGH HOPE Clinic

Electives and longitudinal experiences will be further tailored to each fellow’s interests and guided by the interdisciplinary Mass General Addiction Medicine Fellowship faculty. The diverse program faculty includes the following:

• Physicians from Internal Medicine, Psychiatry and Family Medicine
• Nurse Practitioners
• Clinical Pharmacists
• Recovery Coaches
• Clinical Social Workers

The primary goal of the one year, full-time Mass General Addiction Medicine Fellowship is to prepare physicians for clinical and academic careers in Addiction Medicine. Fellows will benefit from working within an initiative at the forefront of Addiction Medicine.

Fellows receive benefits through Mass General Brigham. More information on policies for vacation time, sick leave, holidays, educational leave, Family and Medical Leave Act, bereavement time, moonlighting, health care and other benefits can be found on Mass General Brigham benefits website.

Core Clinical Sites

• Massachusetts General Hospital
• Mass General Community Health Centers
• Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program

Clinical Experience Area

Curriculum

Mass General Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program

The one-year Massachusetts General Hospital Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program combines the resources of Mass General and its community addiction treatment partners to offer a comprehensive clinical training program. This Addiction Medicine Fellowship is an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) approved fellowship. Fellows, all of whom have completed a clinical residency, can complete a single clinical training year in addiction medicine, culminating in sitting for their boards in addiction medicine.

The curriculum is tailored to each individual fellow’s interests, and fellows are guided by the interdisciplinary Mass General Addiction Medicine Fellowship faculty.

Training Experience

Core training includes an overview of the field of Addiction Medicine with an emphasis on training Addiction Medicine physicians who will educate other clinicians and trainees in the community; rigorously assess and incorporate scientific evidence into their practice, and deliver compassionate care to a diverse population of patients, particularly those who are most marginalized. Training will comprise didactic and clinical experiences across the spectrum of addiction care, including the following:

• Neurobiology of addiction
• Alcohol and drug pharmacology
• Comprehensive treatment of the full spectrum of substance use disorders
• Pharmacotherapy for substance use disorders
• Psychosocial interventions
• Harm reduction
• Motivational interviewing
• Care for vulnerable populations
• Novel and integrated care models for substance use disorder treatment
• Medical education

Elective Rotation

Fellows will have 12 weeks of elective rotations. Electives will offer fellows an opportunity to deepen their experience in one of the areas of required training, including the following:

• Methadone maintenance
• Community-based addiction treatment
• Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program
• The Bridge Clinic
• Co-occurring disorders
• Inpatient addiction consultation
• Transgender Health
• Infectious Diseases

Fellows may also create custom electives with the help of the program director focused on their unique interests. Some examples of possible electives include the following:

• Clinical rotations in other types of community treatment programs
• Obstetrics and gynecology caring for pregnant patients with addiction
• Pediatric or adolescent treatment programs
• Scholarly projects
• Developing and delivering addiction medicine education to other clinicians or trainees

Fellows learn to work in a team model with other professionals, including counselors, social workers, nurses, psychologists and physicians from a variety of specialties.

Fellows will have twice weekly didactics delivered by program faculty and faculty in the addiction medicine and addiction psychiatry fellowship on a range of topics related to the fundamentals of addiction medicine.

Mentorship and Career Development

Mentorship and career development is an important aspect of our program. Within the first three months of the program, each fellow has the opportunity to meet with our Program Director(s) to discuss career goals. Program Directors concretely explore fellows’ career aspirations including geography and type of faculty position and provide guidance on the job search process, including where to search for posted job opportunities and what networking opportunities exist at local and national meetings. Program directors directly connect fellows to addiction medicine colleagues based on fellows’ interests and utilize their own professional networks to make introductions for fellows to speak with leaders in the field in geographic regions of interest to begin exploring job opportunities. In addition, our faculty represent a variety of diverse care settings and are eager to support and mentor fellows depending on their interests. After the initial meeting, career planning sessions continued monthly for the remainder of the training year.

Anti-racism Plan

The MGH Substance Use Disorders Initiative is implementing concrete action steps as part of its anti-racism plan and welcomes input and involvement from staff across the program. This work is integrated with the Mass General Brigham United Against Racism initiative, a sweeping system-wide approach outlining broad social justice and equity goals and strategies. The Addiction Medicine Fellowship is committed to recruiting diverse classes of fellows and works toward that goal in close collaboration with the MGH Center for Diversity and Inclusion.

Our Team

Meet our faculty

Current Fellows

Addiction Medicine Fellows 2022-2023

Daniel Liauw, MD, MPH

Daniel grew up in Indonesia and China before completing college and medical school at UNC Chapel Hill. He completed residency in Internal Medicine-Primary Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, during which he provided forensic evaluations for people seeking asylum and conducted longitudinal street outreach at Boston Healthcare for the Homeless. These experiences furthered his interests in full-spectrum primary care, housing advocacy, and care delivery innovation for people who use drugs. The intersections between racism, migration, houselessness, and homophobia/transphobia call him to this work.
Daniel enjoys hosting dinner parties, traveling on a shoestring budget, and playing classical piano.

Samuel Nwaobi, MD, MPH

Samuel completed his medical education at the University of Benin, Nigeria, and received a Master’s in Public Health Epidemiology at Georgia Southern University, GA. He completed his family medicine residency training at Piedmont Columbus Regional, GA where he received the 2022 American Academy of Family Physicians Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education and the Arnold P. Gold Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award. Professionally, his areas of interest include the integration of substance use disorder (SUD) treatment in various clinical settings, neuromodulation, and mitigating medical complications associated with SUD. Following fellowship, he plans to be involved in medical education and the integration of evidence-based substance use treatment in primary care and hospital-based models. His lifelong goal is to improve addiction medicine competency among medical students and clinicians across the United States and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Emily Tixier

Emily is from New Orleans, Louisiana and attended medical school at Mount Sinai in New York City. She recently finished her residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Internal Medicine with a focus on primary care. During residency she worked at Charlestown as well as Bridge Clinic and developed an interest in Addiction Medicine, as well as harm reduction and medical education. She is planning a career that will combine both primary care and Addiction Medicine. During her free time, she enjoys biking, board games, and spending time with her husband and friends in Camberville.

Learn more about our past fellows

How to Apply

Eligibility

Eligible candidates will have completed an ACGME–accredited residency program prior to start date of the fellowship in Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Med-Peds or Family Medicine.

Timeline

Thank you so much for your interest. We are now accepting applications through ERAS and participating in the Match. Please check ERAS for the application timeline for the 2024-2025 academic year. The Fellowship Training Committee will review all applications and the training director may conduct a telephone interview before extending an invitation for an interview. Interviews will occur in September and October 2023. Currently, we anticipate that interviews will be conducted virtually.

Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) funded fellowship slots: The Mass General Addiction Medicine Fellowship now has two HRSA-funded fellowship slots for 2024-2025. The goal of this program is to train addiction medicine fellows to address racism and to build a diverse workforce to provide effective, community-based addiction treatment. Priority will be given to applicants who are under-represented in medicine (URiM). Through this program, funding for addiction medicine board materials and exam fees will be provided as well as focused career planning and support to pursue career opportunities in under-served communities. Please email Fellowship Coordinator Jessica Carbonneau to indicate your interest in an HRSA-funded slot. Please still apply through ERAS.

Career Development Grant

Addiction medicine fellows interested in further support for training and career development in substance use and addiction medicine can apply for a National Institutes of Health-sponsored K12 career development grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for two to three years of salary, project support and intensive, mentored research training and career development with Harvard Medical School faculty in basic, translational or clinical aspects of research in addiction medicine. Visit Mass General's Center for Addiction Medicine website for more information and a downloadable application.