Building a strong foundation from the ground up: the impact of a medical student substance use disorder organization on curriculum and community

Abstract

Due to the increasing rates of substance use disorders (SUDs), accidental overdoses, and associated high mortality rates, there is an urgent need for well-trained physicians who can grasp these complex issues and help struggling patients. Preparing these physicians occurs through targeted education and clinical exposure in conjunction with medical school curricula in the field of addiction medicine. Medical students can often feel overwhelmed by the medical school curriculum and changes to the curriculum take time, money, and administrative commitment to ratify. Implementing a student organization dedicated to SUD education can be a solution to provide clinical exposure, education and student autonomy in their medical school experience. At Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit vs. Addiction (DvA) is a student-run organization that is filling the gap in SUD education for medical students whilst providing assistance to the community. DvA not only extends clinical education for physicians in training, but it also provides the medical school with an opportunity to allow students to create a blueprint for education initiatives that can be incorporated as a mainstay in the school’s technical trainings. Herein, we describe the evolution of this organization and its activities.

Keywords:

• Medical education
• substance use disorders
• harm reduction
• medical school

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the staff and students at Wayne State University School of Medicine for supporting the development and distribution of this survey.

Author contributions

LN was current president of DvA along with AC as Vice President and worked to build on DvA’s past successes and collaborations in the community. They worked on the development of future plans for the organization. LN also serves as the medical school representative for the WSU Opioid Task Force, providing DvA with up-to-date community projects and ensuring they are available to help as volunteers or provide information for the community, IL was the initial founder and motivator behind DvA’s creation and helped with the history of the organization and how it was established. JC worked as DvA’s past president and helped with research projects as well as creating collaborations with other student organizations. TEHM is a MD/PhD student who works as a student advisor to oversee projects and provide insight and expertise in project development and research. MKG and EW are faculty advisors who provide guidance and support for the organization’s success as well as expertise in the field from both clinical, academic, and research perspectives. MKG also serves on the Opioid Task Force.

Role of funding source

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Other disclosures

Faculty effort was supported by the Gertrude Levin Endowed Chair in Addiction and Pain Biology (MKG), Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (Helene Lycaki/Joe Young, Sr. Funds), and Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network. Trainee effort was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under award number F30 DA052118 (TEHM). All authors declare no conflict of interest with respect to the conduct or content of this work.

Ethical approval

All study procedures were approved by the administration at the School of Medicine. Ethical approval has been waived for any studies discussed in this manuscript. For the pilot study the investigators received IRB exemption status (IRB#: 041919B3X, Protocol#: 1904002169) 04/0/2019. For the study of the Class of 2023, the investigators received IRB exemption status (IRB#: 082419B3X) 08/08/2019. For the study of the Class of 2024, the investigators received IRB exemption status (IRB#: 20062376) 07/14/2020.

Data availability statement

Raw data were generated at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Derived data supporting the findings of any mentioned studies are available from the corresponding author MKG on request.

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare no conflict of interest in the conduct of this study.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.