Addiction Medicine Fellowship

Overview

In 2023, 48.5 million people had a substance use disorder (SUD), yet only one in four received treatment annually. Among hospitalized patients, 22% have an active drug or alcohol use disorder. Despite the growing prevalence of SUD, 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 focus on developing and enhancing evidence-based addiction prevention and treatment services, building new innovative systems of care, and providing the highest quality of care.

Through a combination of inpatient and outpatient care spanning a range of 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 Mass General community health centers and primary care settings: Chelsea HealthCare Center, Charlestown HealthCare Center, and Internal Medicine Associates
• 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 interdisciplinary program faculty includes the following:

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

Fellows will benefit from working within a program at the forefront of Addiction Medicine and with interdisciplinary care teams.

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, patient-centered care. 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
• Overdose and infectious disease prevention
• Motivational interviewing
• Care for medically and psychiatrically complex 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
• 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 women 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, recovery coaches, resource specialists, nurses, psychologists and physicians from a variety of specialties.

Fellows will participate in national didactic sessions with ACAAM and attend twice-weekly didactics led by program faculty, as well as addiction medicine and addiction psychiatry fellowship faculty, covering 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 will 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 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.

Our Team

Meet our faculty

Current Fellows

Addiction Medicine Fellows 2025-2026

Vivian Kalu, MD (She/Her)

Preferred name: Vivian

Vivian received her medical degree from the American University of Antigua. During her clinical rotations in Baltimore, she developed a strong interest in addiction medicine. She then completed her Internal Medicine residency at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where she trained in the Inclusion Health and Primary Care tracks. As a SAMSHA REACH Scholar (Recognizing and Eliminating Disparities in Addiction through Culturally-Informed Healthcare), she continues to engage in research on health disparities and access to addiction care for people facing complex social and structural challenges. She hopes to build a career as a primary care–addiction medicine physician, working to develop practical, patient-centered approaches that meet people where they are.

Outside of medicine, she enjoys exploring new culinary experiences, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.

Shraddha Damaraju, MD, MPH (She/Her)

Preferred name: Shraddha

Shraddha grew up in Delaware & attended Drexel University in Philadelphia, where she developed a strong interest in health equity and public health. Through partnering with local communities for naloxone distribution + overdose prevention education, she became interested in addiction medicine. She completed residency in Internal Medicine/Primary Care at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she fostered her interest in medical education through addiction medicine curricular building. She deeply values the power of local communities in promoting public health, and hopes to become a primary care physician focused on caring for people at the intersection of various systems of oppression, particularly patients with substance use disorders. 

Outside of medicine, she loves spending time with her husband and family, finding new nature trails and local towns to explore, playing video & board games with friends, and making jewelry.

Sarah (SK) Kler, MD (She/Her)

Inaugural Matthew Perry Fellow
Preferred name: SK

SK is from Eugene, Oregon and attended medical school at Brown University. She completed residency in Internal Medicine-Primary Care at Massachusetts General Hospital followed by a year as Chief Resident.

During residency and chief year, she furthered her interests in primary care, street medicine and homeless health, harm reduction, health equity, and medical education through a variety of experiences, including longitudinal work with Boston Healthcare for the Homeless. She hopes to craft a career as a primary care-addiction medicine clinician-educator, helping forward person-centered team-based care for people experiencing homelessness.

She enjoys public library reading challenges, board games, cooking from community supported agriculture, and spending time outdoors with her friends, husband, and dog, Dilly Bean.

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 finished with our interview season for the 2025-2026 year. Please check back in July 2025 as we will begin accepting applications through ERAS and participating in the Match. Please check ERAS for the application timeline for the 2026-2027 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 2025. Currently, we anticipate that interviews will be conducted virtually.

Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) funded fellowship slots: The Mass General Addiction Medicine Fellowship is fortunate to be the recipient of a HRSA grant to expand the number of addiction trained physicians. Please email Fellowship Program Coordinator Samreen Sethi 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.