How to Apply the ASAM Criteria

Dr. Paul Earley has been an Addiction Medicine Physician for 36 years. He treats all types of addictive disorders and specializes in the assessment and treatment of health care professionals. As a therapist, he works with patients already in recovery, providing long-term therapy for those who suffer from this disease. His professional expertise extends to advocacy for professionals before agencies and licensing boards. Dr. Earley is a Distinguished Fellow of ASAM and has been on the board of ASAM for over 20 years in several capacities. He has been the Medical Director of two nationally acclaimed addiction programs specializing in healthcare professionals who suffer from addiction illnesses. Currently, Dr. Earley is the Medical Director of the Georgia Professionals Health Program, Inc., the Physicians Health Program (PHP) for the state of Georgia in the U.S. With Earley Consultancy, LLC, he works with numerous treatment facilities, providing training in cohesive care, treatment effectiveness, and staff development.

"In his 25 years at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Gastfriend directed the Addiction Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and founded the MGH-McLean Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship. His research operationalized and validated ASAM’s Criteria, contributing to their endorsement by most U.S. states, the VA and the Department of Defense. These NIDA- and NIAAA-funded studies led to CONTINUUM - the ASAM Criteria Decision Engine(TM), developed with the support of the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for nationwide release.

From 2004-2013, Dr. Gastfriend was Vice President at Alkermes, Inc., where he supported gaining FDA approval of VIVITROL® for alcohol and opioid dependence and conducted clinical, criminal justice, and health economic research in addiction.
In 2014-2015 he was CEO of the Treatment Research Institute (TRI), the Philadelphia-based international research and policy center. He continues as Scientific Advisor, providing guidance to its researchers on projects such as the Addiction Severity Index and the Kennedy Foundation Parity Monitoring Project.

In 2016, he co-founded, with his son, Eric Gastfriend MBA, DynamiCare Health(TM), to provide a nationally scalable, standardized, low-cost smartphone implementation for contingency management and foster wide-scale adoption of this evidence-based approach to incentivizing healthy recovery behaviors.

NIDA granted him a Mid-Career Investigator Award for Patient-Oriented Research in 2000. In 2007, he received the Boston Business Journal's “Champion in Health Care – Innovator Award”. He is currently Principal Investigator on the $13 million PCORI-funded PATH Study of integrated addiction and primary care. He received ASAM's 2012 McGovern Award and Lecture for contributions to addiction treatment and society. Among his 150 scientific publications are ""The ASAM Criteria"" and ""Addiction Treatment Matching"". He has advised the governments of Belgium, China, Iceland, Israel, Norway, Russia and the U.S. on alcohol and drug addiction treatment. "

David Mee-Lee, M.D. is a board-certified psychiatrist, andis certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM). Based inDavis, California, he trains and consults both nationally andinternationally.  Dr. Mee-Lee is ChiefEditor of the American Society of Addiction Medicine's (ASAM) Criteria for theTreatment of Addictive, Substance-Related, and Co-Occurring Conditions and isPresident of DML Training and Consulting. He is co-founder of the Institute forWellness Education. Dr. Mee-Lee has forty years of experience in personcentered treatment and program development for people with co-occurring mentalhealth and substance use conditions.