The American Osteopathic Academy of Addiction Medicine (AOAAM) continues to demonstrate itself as a frontline leader in the battle against opioid and other substance use disorders. As the addiction medicine subspecialty organization of the American Osteopathic Association (AOA; with a membership of 145,000 physicians and students), the AOAAM is uniquely positioned to best represent DOs who are at the vanguard of the treatment of substance use disorders in clinics, hospitals, and private practices. I would like to take this opportunity to update you on some of the initiatives AOAAM has been involved with this past year.
The AOAAM has been working towards ensuring that even more osteopathic physicians will join the fight by advocating and working with the AOA to reopen the pathway for osteopathic certification in addiction medicine, which was closed several years before the current opioid crisis. While allopathically boarded physicians can pursue addiction medicine certification until 2021 through the American Board of Preventive Medicine, most osteopathically boarded DOs have been unable to become certified, thereby eliminating them from consideration for key positions. After decades of lobbying, the AOAAM submitted a resolution at the 2018 AOA House of Delegates (HOD) meeting to re-open the pathway in addiction medicine for osteopathic physicians with AOA primary board certification. This resolution was referred to the AOA Finance Committee, which submitted the fiscal impact of the costs of the exam to the AOA Board of Trustees. The resolution was resubmitted at the 2019 HOD, where it was approved, much to the delight of all of us who have been advocating for this outcome. The resolution provides for a clinical practice pathway to be opened for three years for DOs who wish to become certified in the subspecialty of addiction medicine. It also provides that osteopathic physicians who have completed an AOA-approved fellowship in addiction medicine be allowed to take the certification examination. We are very excited about this opportunity for DOs and we will continue to keep our members informed about the progress of this initiative.
In 2018, the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration awarded a two-year State Targeted Response – Technical Assistance grant (Opioid Response Network) to the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) and AOAAM is a subgrantee. The Opioid Response Network (ORN) provides technical assistance and trainings regarding prevention and treatment of opioid use disorders to anyone who requests it. The AOAAM has been working with AAAP in recruiting and vetting health care providers to serve as consultants and provide technical assistance. Furthermore, several AOAAM members are serving as local experts for this project. If you need training or technical assistance to apply evidence-based practices in your program or community, make a request on https://opioidresponsenetwork.org/.
The AOAAM is also a subgrantee with AAAP on the Prescribers Clinical Support System (PCSS) grant which was renewed for 3 years. We continue to provide two web-based buprenorphine waiver trainings per month for physicians and advanced practice providers, as well as live trainings. Over the years, AOAAM has conducted hundreds of these trainings, leading to thousands of certified buprenorphine prescribers.
In April 2019, AOAAM signed on to become a member of the Coalition to Stop Opioid Overdose (CSOO), a coalition of national, regional, and local groups united to reduce the number of opioid overdoses by advancing legislative and regulatory policies to support prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery.
Lastly, AOAAM continues to sponsor five days of continuing osteopathic medical education at the annual AOA Osteopathic Medical Education Conference (OMED). This year OMED is being held in Baltimore, MD. During OMED, AOAAM will also have its annual business meeting where we will bring you more updates and discuss new initiatives. Thank you very much for being a valued member of AOAAM and I look forward to seeing you at OMED.
President American Osteopathic Academy of Addiction Medicine
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