​The ASAM Fundamentals of Addiction Medicine 40-Hour Program is an innovative educational program empowering primary care and other providers to identify, treat, and/or refer patients at risk for or with addiction. The curriculum is designed for healthcare professionals who received little addiction education during their medical training.​

The ASAM Criteria Course is a practical workshop designed to help counselors, social workers, administrators, and other clinical staff develop patient-centered service plans and make objective decisions about patient admission, continuing care, and transfer/discharge for individuals with addictive, substance-related, and co-occurring conditions.

Participants will learn clinical best practices and new research developments for treating patients with pain and addiction and how to begin to integrate these techniques into their own practices.

This course covers all approved medications to treat opioid use disorder and provides the 8 hours of education needed to receive a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine in an office-based setting.

Earn a maximum of 64.5 AMA PRA Category 1™ credits while learning about the latest innovations in Addiction Medicine and Science from these on-demand conference recordings from the nation’s premiere conference on the latest science, research, best practices and innovations in addiction medicine.

Earn 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning how professionals in Indiana's Project POINT have been removing as many barriers as possible to help patients get the services they desire, as well as, getting and then, maintaining engagement in treatment, from this conference recording at The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning how to treat youth with opioid addiction while employing developmentally specific approaches, using relapse prevention medication (MAT), from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018). The session also includes when and how to involve families, as well as a discussion on issues in confidentiality and the use of various levels of care.

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning harm reduction strategies and keeping people engaged in care, from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning about physician burnout and suicide rates, as well as treatment options for physicians with substance use disorder, from this recording at The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning how to integrate addiction treatment into general medical health systems, from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning how to recognize trends in adolescent tobacco use from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning learn what an immediate access, low threshold, transitional drop-in clinic looks like, treating close to 500 patients with Substance Use Disorder since 2016, from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning about the myths and facts of fentanyl and analogs from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning about innovative ideas for reducing the substance use of individuals who are under criminal justice supervision and review evidence on program effectiveness, from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning about the common pitfalls to urine and oral fluid drug testing from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning about an innovative rapid access medical withdrawal management service from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning about SAMHSA's Toolkit for Improving Practice, or TIP, in response to the opioid crisis under the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016, which outlines up-to-date information about using medications to treat OUD in order to expand the use of effective treatments, from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning about psychiatric and medical co-morbidities from a psychiatrist perspective. This conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018), serves as a fundamentals of psychiatry and is designed strictly for non-psychiatrist addiction medicine professionals.

Earn 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while preparing yourself as a clinician to provide addiction medical management and/or psychiatric care in patients who also use cannabis, from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning about different models of office-based opioid treatment, from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning how to to improve clinical outcomes within treatment systems in which patients with addiction involving opioids receive care, from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning how Motivational Interviewing (or MI), has been transformational in medical care since it's release in 2013, from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning about the frequently encountered issues, as well as the substantial evolution in the management of older challenges, as well as the emergence of new issues in the interface between pain and addiction, from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning about Addiction Medicine's highest impact, peer-reviewed journal articles across the field of Addiction Medicine from 2017-2018, from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning how to implement evidence-based practices in the management of substance use disorders, especially opioid use disorders, from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

Earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ while learning the skills that can facilitate the implementation of forgiveness in clinical practice, from this conference recording from The ASAM 49th Annual Conference (2018).

The nation’s premiere conference on the latest science, research, best practices and innovations in addiction medicine.

Evaluating drug withdrawal effects is an integral component of dependence potential, which informs the overall safety, appropriate dosing, and scheduling of a drug. Understanding withdrawal phenomenon is critical in the care and management of patients who are physically dependent on medication or drugs of abuse. This workshop will address the regulatory and methodological considerations that are rapidly evolving in this active area of research and will cover case examples of studies examining drug withdrawal and dependence. In addition, the clinical relevance of dependency and mitigation of symptoms in the clinical setting will be discussed.

In this presentation, I will provide a critical review of two key assumptions that have driven much of the comorbidity research over the past 35 years (since the introduction of DSM III): that the various subtypes of anxiety disorder like social phobia each have a distinct relationship to alcohol use disorder and that alleviating a co-occurring anxiety disorder through conventional psychiatric treatments, either alone or in conjunction with AUD treatment, is the most effective clinical response to comorbidity.

Clinical cases involving alcohol use disorder, methadone induced QTc prolongation, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and pain and addiction, will be presented and discussed. This session is meant to be interactive, with participants discussing how they would manage the clinical dilemmas.

“Recovery coaches” (RCs), peers sharing the lived experience of addiction and recovery, are increasingly being integrated into general medicine. RCs can help fill the large substance use disorder treatment gap and partner with vulnerable patients to help them connect with and navigate healthcare and other services. Building off of a hospital system-wide RC program and qualitative study on the RC role, this workshop will introduce participants RCs and use a step-by-step, interactive case study to walk participants through designing a recovery coach program for their practice.

Medication treatments for opioid addiction have been validated in primary care and hospital based settings. Despite the clinical potential associated with medications for addiction treatment, there has been limited adoption of pharmacotherapies in the treatment of opioid use disorder in these settings. This focus session will review strategies to integrate the delivery of pharmacotherapies in the treatment of opioid use disorder in primary care and hospital settings.

The United States is in the midst of an unprecedented opioid epidemic resulting in serious morbidity and mortality. More people died from drug over dose in 2014 than in any year on record and more than 60% involved an opioid. The Department of Health and Human Services announced an initiative to reduce prescription opioid overdose by expanding the use of Medications Assisted Treatment (MAT) that combines the use of medication with counseling to treat Substance Use Disorders (SUDs).

Incarcerated populations have high rates of substance use disorders (SUDs), yet treatment of these disorders is rare in US jails and prisons. This workshop will explore some of these models and the changing landscape of options for improving the health of incarcerated persons who have OUD and other SUDs. We will describe innovative models from 2 states, and will offer small group discussion about how to expand treatment in your own community.

Vermont established a Chronic Care Initiative that made opioid use disorder part of the Blueprint for Health and designated funding for an integrated model of care linking medical providers with regional Opioid Treatment programs (designated as hubs) and provided Community Health teams to assist buprenorphine prescribers (designated as spokes) in their practices. We describe this model and successes showing total increase in treatment enrollees, increase in number of physicians waived to prescribe buprenorphine and numbers of patients per provider, provision of a triage tool to determine hub or spoke placement and use of a learning collaborative to increase overall knowledge base statewide for opioid use disorder treatment.

Ethical issues abound in caring for patients with addiction, with clinical dilemmas related to difficult patients, manipulative behavior, refusal of care and legal issues. The workshop will briefly review the ethical principles of Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence, Justice, Fidelity and Futility. The understanding of these terms will serve as the basis of case based discussions.

This workshop will examine unique models of interdisciplinary HCV care delivery tailored to different clinical settings where persons who use drugs may present including: primary care, opioid treatment programs, syringe exchanges, and safety net programs for the homeless. We will review basics of treatment models after which we will hold an interactive session where small groups will review pertinent cases.

An interactive workshop that will introduce Integrative Addiction Medicine by giving a context for this whole person treatment approach, and providing a 'sampler' of clinical approaches that will include: nutrition, mindfulness, supplements, sleep and CAM case examples. Some of the evidence-base will be presented. This workshop will include interactive tools that will be practiced within the workshop, time for discussion, and will end with participants creating their own practice-change action plan.

This presentation will provide an overview of how the state courts are structured, discuss in-depth how drug and other specialty court programs work, and explore strategies for building partnerships between the courts and the medical community (specifically with the use of MAT).

The Mass General Bridge Clinic is an immediate access clinic which provides low threshold transitional support and treatment to patients following hospitalization or directly from the emergency department (ED) and other outpatient clinics. The clinic predominantly serves individuals who would otherwise be unable to access care. The goal of the clinic is first and foremost engagement, followed by rapid treatment initiation, stabilization, and linkage to community-based treatment. This focus session will describe the nuts and bolts of starting and running this type of a clinic model, review lessons learned, and discuss early outcomes.

As value-based reimbursement continues to expand, healthcare organization leaders increasingly appreciate the importance of behavioral health but aren’t sure what to do about it. Simply hoping that providers will recognize and treat or refer patients for behavioral health issues will no longer “cut it.” In this session, attendees will learn how to advise healthcare leaders on Behavioral Screening and Intervention, an evidence-based, cost-saving, proactive approach to identifying and addressing behavioral risks and disorders.

In this presentation, we will review a brief history of the separation of addiction treatment from the medical establishment. We will introduce the Harm Reduction model, and compare how that model fits with traditional treatment models as opposed to with Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT). We will share our process of building a MAT program in a rural primary care network, including our use of the Extension of Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) model to build competency in including MAT as part of comprehensive primary care.

The presenters will provide an introduction to the concepts of teamwork enhancement as it may apply to care providers within the field of addiction care. Attendees may identify areas in which opportunities for improvement exist in their current or past working environment.

The prudent prescribing of controlled drugs has been a challenge for decades. Balancing prescribing for legitimate medical purpose while avoiding prescribing in high risk situations has been one of the most difficult aspects to address. This is partly due to suboptimal screening for high risk patients by prescribers prior to and during chronic controlled drug prescribing. The development of US Prescription Monitoring Programs has brought about the clinical expectation that Substance Abuse Treatment Programs (SATPs) will perform a PMP web-site search on all patients evaluated for problematic substance use.

Jim Walsh and Vania Rudolf will address challenges and practical considerations for OAT and summarize its benefits for maternal and neonatal outcomes when compared to medication assisted withdrawal management.

There are controversies regarding marijuana in the development of current public policy in the United States through legalization and/or decriminalization of medical marijuana and recreational marijuana throughout the nation, and worldwide as well. Informed addiction physicians are best qualified to opine, advise and advocate for improved public policy regarding marijuana use, access and promotion. This symposium will provide opinion survey data of ASAM and ISAM physicians. Overall perspectives from highly qualified scientists and professionals related to the impact of marijuana policies on individuals, families and communities in diverse cultural settings will be presented.

This session will review: Survey data of NPs interest in treating OUD and obtaining a waiver to prescribe MATs; Potential barriers for NPs related to prescribing MATs and Current status of number of NPs that have registered for the required 24 hours of education for waiver application.

The presentation will include vignettes of treatment options for problems that are commonly seen in both the pain management office, and the addiction treatment setting. A brief overview of the type of available procedures, and their risks and options will be discussed. We will then allow time for questions. Drs. Hansen and Silverman are both active and Board members of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, which is a group of physicians and extended care providers that train and provide resources to treat our patients in pain. Their experience in pain medicine and addiction medicine allow them to present a perspective that is unique to the complex patient in treatment and pain.

Nearly all substance use disorders (SUDs) can be traced to adolescence, when the vulnerable adolescent brain is first exposed to psychoactive substances. With a backdrop in brain biology, this presentation will present the clinical and policy implications for managing the highly prevalent chronic and serious problem of SUDs in this high-risk population. We will review the AAP guidance for pediatricians and discuss strategies for providing SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment) in primary care clinical settings.

This workshop shares the experiences of three residential addiction treatment center implementing tobacco-free policies. We will review the epidemiology of tobacco use disorders with respect to patients with other substance use disorders. We will have small group discussion to facilitate how each workshop participant could implement tobacco-free policies at their respective programs.

In today’s healthcare environment, data continues to support an integrated, team approach to obtaining the best patient outcomes. This session will look at how to identify community resources as well as best practices in integration and team care.

This is enduring material has been made available free of charge by the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

The opening session will focus on the dawn of a new day in addiction medicine with an exciting lineup of ASAM award winners and luminaries in the field.

This lively session will give attendees the opportunity to interact with representatives from SAMHSA, NIAAA, and NIDA.

This interactive, multimedia focus session will provide the primary care clinician a primer on addressing unhealthy alcohol exposure across the lifespan with a focus on FASDs diagnosis, management and prevention. We will discuss how to screen for, diagnosis, manage and refer patients with FASDs in the primary care setting. We will also review two evidence-based approaches to alcohol exposed pregnancy prevention in primary and integrated care systems, alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention (aSBI) and the CHOICES interventions. Lastly we will share strategies to promote a safe and supportive, stigma-free practice environment for patients with FASDs and their families.

The membership of the International Society of Addiction Medicine (ISAM), established in 1998, includes a large, worldwide representation of addiction specialists who have regularly met to present and exchange their respective findings. Speakers at this session will present findings from research and their clinically applicable experiences that can shed light on the problems we confront here in the United States.

This workshop will help physicians and other healthcare providers to better understand their profession’s unique risk factors for adverse outcomes such as substance abuse, suicide and burnout. Additionally, it will help providers who are in the position of evaluating and/or treating a colleague or fellow healthcare provider to obtain better outcomes and to provide optimal diagnostics and treatment.

This workshop presentation will tackle the controversies related to urine drug testing and explore possibilities for best practices in various practice settings. Laboratory and testing technologies will be described with a look at the sensitivity and specificity of the testing type as well as considerations of cost to the patient and cost (staff time, supplies) to the provider in these various settings.

Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the new research and clinical guidelines on treating patients with pain and addiction and how to apply these to improve patient outcomes.

This session will discuss what the clinical and resource benefits of adopting new technological innovations are and how data for all three approaches are informing clinical and policy interventions.

With last year's formal recognition by the American Board of Medical Specialties and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, opportunities are rapidly expanding for educational leaders in addiction medicine. This workshop will help participants who are interested in developing the new fellowship training programs that will build the national workforce of expert subspecialists and help integrate addiction medicine across the continuum of medical education. Based on a technical assistance model that has helped establish more than 40 fellowships since 2011, the session with include an exercise in step-by-step fellowship planning that can be used to start a subsequent accreditation application. Interested participants will be linked to ongoing support.

ASAM began addressing the adversarial prior authorization process with managed care with the 1991 ASAM Criteria. After 20 years of research, ASAM has released CONTINUUM – The ASAM Criteria Decision Engine™ nationwide. This workshop will provide the practical exposure to help active clinicians and program administrators understand how to organize, introduce and use this new clinical standard for success. The workshop will review counselor and patient evaluations from the alpha, beta and national demonstration projects. Attendees will review evaluation findings, the Harvard Business School study, the national survey of state requirements, and undergo a tour of the tool. The workshop will explain how to use CONTINUUM to address the federal Parity Act and the summer 2015 federal Medicaid specifications for external third party review of all substance use disorder placements. Attendees will assess the software’s ease of use, learning curve, impact on clinical assessment and potential for managed care reform. The discussion will examine the practical issues of HIPAA and 42cfr data privacy and how these support the national patient data registry.