Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder: Waiver Qualifying - Colorado Springs, CO - Friday, September 14, 2018

Dr. Daniel P. Alford is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Assistant Dean of CME and Director of the Safe and Competent Opioid Prescribing Education (SCOPE of Pain) program at Boston University School of Medicine. He is a diplomate in Addiction Medicine by the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM).

He is director of the Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit medical director of the Office-Based Opioid Treatment (OBOT) program and of the Massachusetts Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment Training and Technical Assistance (MASBIRT TTA) program and former program director for the Addiction Medicine Fellowship program at Boston Medical Center (BMC). Since 2001 he has served as the course director of the Chief Resident Immersion Training (CRIT) Program in Addiction Medicine: Improving Clinical and Teaching Skills for Generalists funded by NIDA. He is president of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA). In 2011, he was recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House. In 2014 he received the Health Education Award from the American Medical Association.

Dr. Edwin A. Salsitz has been an attending physician in the Mount Sinai Beth Israel , Division of Chemical Dependency, New York City, since 1983, and is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He is the principal investigator of the Methadone Medical Maintenance (office-based methadone maintenance) research project. 

Dr. Salsitz is certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM), as well as by the Board of Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Disease. He has published and lectures frequently on addiction medicine topics.Dr. Salsitz is a course director for ASAM sponsored buprenorphine trainings,and is a mentor in the PCSS-MAT mentoring program. He has co-chaired the ASAM Review Course, the ASAM Common Threads Course, the ASAM State of the Art course and is a reviewer for the Journal of Addiction Medicine and Drug and Alcohol Dependence. He is the chair of the ASAM REMS course on safe and effective prescribing of opioids. 

Dr. Salsitz was the Co-chair of the ASAM CME committee and Chair of the New York Society of Addiction Medicine CME and Education committee. Dr. Salsitz is a member of the medical advisory panel, for the New York State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services.  Dr. Salsitz is the recipient of the 2014 ASAM Annual Award, and the 2018 ASAM Annual Educator of the Year Award.

Sarah Bagley, MD, is an attending in the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center. Sarah completed a Combined Residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Brown and then an Addiction Medicine Fellowship at Boston University. Her clinical and research interest are related to the impact of substance use on families and in the treatment of adolescents with substance use disorders.

Jeff Baxter, MD, is an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Baxter completed a fellowship in Addiction Medicine at the Boston VA Medical Center, and is board certified in Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine. He currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer for Spectrum Health Systems Addiction Treatment Services, overseeing inpatient, outpatient and residential divisions.

Colleen LaBelle has certifications in addiction nursing and HIV with over 20 years of clinical experience in HIV and addiction, and co-authored a publication in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, “Treating Homeless Opioid Dependent Patients with Buprenorphine in an Office-based Setting." She was instrumental in the start up of the OBOT Program in the BMC Primary Care Clinic, which manages over 450 active patients with buprenorphine. This program provides buprenorphine treatment for patients in primary care, homeless, HIV, Family Medicine, OB, and support to the affiliated community health centers. She is the program director of the STATE OBOT B (State Technical Assistance, Treatment Expansion of Buprenorphine) working with 14 community health centers implementing a nurse care manager model for the expansion of buprenorphine. Since 2003, Ms. LaBelle has served as Faculty for the buprenorphine certification course of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. She frequently gives presentations on buprenorphine and provides consultation and technical assistance on- and offsite and by telephone. She oversees the MDPH buprenorphine list-serve and provides liaison for MDPH supported buprenorphine training, education and start-up in Massachusetts. She speaks on a local and national level, and has been a part of the SAMHSA Summit on Buprenorphine. Ms. LaBelle has served as a member of the Scientific Study (Study Section) Review Committee for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Since 2004, she has served on the National Advisory Committee on Buprenorphine for the Health Resources and Services Administration and participated in professional editing of TAP 30 Technical Assistance Publication for Nurses with SAMHSA, 2009. Co-author : Five Year Experience with Collaborative Care of Opioid Addicted Patients using Buprenorphine in Primary Care, published Archives of Internal Medicine. In May 2011 she was the recipient of Individual Leadership Award, for Innovation In Health Care from MA Bureau of Substance Abuse Services as well as a NIATX award recipient 2011 Innovations in Behavioral Health Services award for Process Improvements. She is a board member of the Addiction Nurses Certification Board, and recently started a MA Chapter for addiction nurses.

Sharon Levy, MD, MPH, is a board certified Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School; she also has a Master's degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. She is the Director of the Adolescent Substance Abuse Program in the Divi-sion of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital where she has evaluated and treated hundreds of adolescents with substance use disorders. She has published extensively on the outpatient management of substance use disorders in adolescents, including screening and brief advice in primary care, the use of drug testing and the outpatient management of opioid de-pendent adolescents. She is the PI of the SAMHSA-funded medical residen-cy SBIRT project at Children's Hospital Boston and an NIAAA-funded study validating the youth alcohol screening tool in a population of youth with chronic medial illness. Dr. Levy currently serves as the chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Substance Abuse.

Dr. Lum is a general internist and primary care physician, and Professor of Medicine in the HIV/AIDS Division in the University of California, San Francisco's Department of Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital. She is certified by the American Boards of Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine.

Kelley Saia, MD, is an attending obstetrician in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine.Dr. Saia received her medical degree from the University of Vermont, College of Medicine and completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Boston Medical Center.

In addition to caring for women with general obstetrics and gynecologic issues, she is the director of Project RESPECT, Substance Use Disorder Treatment in pregnancy at Boston Medical Center. Project RESPECT has been caring for pregnant women with substance use disorder for over 30 years and Dr. Saia, established the first obstetric buprenorphine clinic in the greater Boston area in 2006. RESPECT cares for over 125 mother-baby pairs per year with a multidisciplinary team consisting of obstetricians, addiction medicine specialist, pediatrics, psychiatry, social work, lactation consultants and nursing. Dr. Saia is actively engaged in patient care QI, clinical and scientific research, community outreach and medical training.

Andrew J. Saxon, M.D. Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington Director, Center of Excellence in Substance Abuse Treatment and Education, VA Puget Sound Health Care System Director, Addiction Psychiatry Residency Program, University of Washington Preceding his entry into psychiatry, Dr. Saxon completed an internal medicine internship and worked for 4 years as an emergency room physician. Subsequent to his general psychiatry residency at the University of Washington, Dr. Saxon has more than a quarter century of experience as a clinical and research addiction psychiatrist. Dr. Saxon is board certified with added qualifications in addiction psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Dr. Saxon sits on the editorial boards of the journals, Drug and Alcohol Dependence and General Hospital Psychiatry. Dr. Saxon's current research work is supported by the VA, the Department of Defense, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse and involves pharmacotherapies and psychotherapies for alcohol, cocaine, tobacco, and opioid use disorders as well work in co-occurrence of substance use disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder and on reducing homelessness.

Alexander Y. Walley, M.D., M.Sc., is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, a general internist and addiction medicine specialist at Boston Medical Center. He is the director of the Addiction Medicine Fellowship program and founded the Inpatient Addiction Consult Service at Boston Medical Center. He does clinical and research-related work on the medical complications of substance use, specifically HIV and overdose. He provides primary care and office-based buprenorphine treatment for HIV patients and methadone maintenance treatment. He is the medical director for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Opioid Overdose Prevention Pilot Program.