Yale accredited to train specialists in addiction medicine

Yale University (New Haven, Conn.) has been accredited to train physicians in the practice of addiction medicine. Yale’s program is among eight new fellowship programs at leading medical institutions that are receiving this accreditation. The accreditation was issued by the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM) Foundation. Physicians who complete a fellowship are eligible to become board-certified in addiction medicine.

While physician training in addiction psychiatry has been available for psychiatrists for a number of years, specialist addiction training for physicians from other specialties such as internal medicine and emergency medicine has been lacking.

“With Yale’s nationally recognized strengths in substance abuse in internal and emergency medicine, along with our strong partnership with Yale’s outstanding psychiatry program, we are well positioned to lead the field of addiction in training as well as in research and clinical care,” said Patrick O’Connor, M.D., professor and chief of general internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine and president-elect of ABAM.

The program will be based at Yale-New Haven Hospital and led by Jeanette Tetrault, M.D., assistant professor of general internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine. “We are looking forward to offering this unique training opportunity at Yale and to working closely with the well-established addiction psychiatry training program,” Tetrault said. “Most importantly, we are looking forward to addressing the shortage of addiction-trained physicians in an effort to improve the care of patients suffering from substance use and its complications.”