By: Jan Hoffman
Submitted By: Michael Maury, UC-San Diego

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, addiction — whether to tobacco, alcohol or other drugs — is a disease that contributes to 632,000 deaths in the United States annually. But comprehensive addiction training is rare in American medical education. A report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University called out “the failure of the medical profession at every level — in medical school, residency training, continuing education and in practice” to adequately address addiction.

What are we doing as SP Educators to teach our student doctors about addiction and substance abuse? At Boston University, Hoffman points out that the medical school “braids addiction training into all four years.”What are we doing in our own schools to train and prepare students to deal with the opioid epidemic taking place in our country?

Read the full article in The New York Times here.

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