Our one-year clinical fellowship is designed to train leaders in the field of Addiction Medicine. Our program runs from July 1 – June 30. We have two positions per year.
Curriculum and Rotations
Penn's rotations encompass a a wide variety of settings. They include the following:
Addiction Medicine Consult Service
Site Director: Samantha Huo, MD
Penn Presbyterian Hospital is a 178,000 square-foot, acute care building, and Penn Medicine's Level 1 Trauma Center. It has more than 350 patient beds. Fellows will spend six months providing addiction medicine consult services to medicine and surgery patients. In this role they will guide the management of opiate, alcohol and other substance intoxication and withdrawal syndromes, often in patients with complex medical and psychiatric illness. They will work within the context of an interdisciplinary team that includes peer support, care navigators, and social workers. They will follow these patients throughout their hospital stay and then help guide the discharge planning and transitions in care.
Penn Family Care: Office Based Treatment
Site Director: Judy Chertok, MD
Penn Family Care is the largest outpatient primary care practice in Penn Medicine serving more than 28,000 patients for primary care. Penn Family Care has concentrated sessions for the care of patients with SUD and OUD for adults and pregnant individuals. Patients with SUD are referred from within the practice, from the ER/hospital or from the community for specialized support. This subgroup of patients with SUD receives SUD care, obstetric care, general primary care, LGBTQ care, and HIV/HEP C care in a collocated manner. This will be the site for outpatient continuity practice.
Prevention Point Philadelphia
Site Director: Judy Chertok, MD
Prevention Point Philadelphia is a harm reduction and social services organization that promotes health, empowerment and safety for communities affected by drug use and poverty. In addition to their multifaceted social services, they also offer MOUD, PREP, PREP, HIV/HEP C treatment, reproductive healthcare, and medical case management. Fellows will work with faculty in the overdose surge bus project to provide harm reduction services and MAT in rotating community sites based on city overdose surge data. Fellows will have the option of spending additional time at Prevention Point at their other sites.
Inpatient Detox at HUP CEDAR
Site Director: Sheyda Sabetan, MD (Medical Director of Addiction Psychiatry Services)
Inpatient Substance Use Disorder Treatment Unit: Fellows will spend one month providing medical care to patients admitted to HUP's Cedar detox and rehab unit. Patients served include adults >18 years old with a range of racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. While the unit accepts many insurances, most patients have Medicaid. The team includes psychiatry, addiction counselors, and nursing staff.
Penn Total Recovery
Outpatient Substance Use Disorder Treatment
Site Director: Rayek Nafiz, MD, MPP
Penn Total Recovery provides intensive outpatient and outpatient levels of care to patients with SUD. Services include individual sessions, groups sessions, psychiatric evaluation and medication management. There are typically over 100 patients enrolled at one time. Common substances of abuse include opiates, alcohol, benzodiazepines, cocaine, cannabis, and PCP. Patients served included adults >18 with a range of racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. While the unit accepts many insurances, most patients have Medicaid. A strength of this rotation is the ability to work with a multidisciplinary team of addiction counselors, peers, psychiatrists, and Addiction Psychiatry fellows.
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania - Pain Center
Site Director: Michael Ashburn, MD, MPH, MBA
Penn’s Pain Center is a multidisciplinary clinic that specializes in the treatment of chronic non-cancer pain. Patients are referred from multiple specialties for consultations. In this rotation, fellows will learn about the outpatient management of opiate therapy for chronic pain and the screening and management of aberrant use and OUD. As opioids and other controlled substances are used to treat pain, pain specialists often care for patients at risk for aberrant drug-related behavior or who suffer from both pain, psychiatric illness, and substance use disorders. As a result, pain medicine includes patient assessment for increased risk for aberrant drug-related behavior, as well as screening for substances use disorder. Pain specialists may also provide MOUD for opioid use disorder as part of their practice.
Veterans Affairs Hospital – Methadone Maintenance Program
Site Director: Hope Selarnick, MD
Penn’s VA hospital offers multiple options for SUD including a methadone maintenance treatment program. Patients are referred from throughout the VA for treatment. Fellows will learn about the treatment of OUD with methadone and interdisciplinary care through collaboration with counselors and social workers.
Addiction Research
Faculty lead: Margaret Lowenstein, MD, MPhil, MSHP
There are opportunities for fellows to be involved in research related to addiction services and care delivery in hospital, outpatient and community settings. Fellows can also connect with the robust network of clinical and behavioral researchers within the Perelman School of Medicine and the Penn Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy.
Electives
To allow each fellow to meet their individual educational and career objectives, fellows will have a ½ day per week longitudinal elective as well as a 1-month concentrated elective. This can be used to develop a clinical skill (for example perinatal OUD treatment, infectious disease integration) or to develop a QI or research area.