Division of  General Internal Medicine

Addiction Medicine Fellowship

Didactics & Scholarly Activities

The UPMC Addiction Medicine Fellowship fosters scholarly development through dedicated didactics, mentorship, and experiential learning. Fellows complete quality improvement and advocacy projects, pursue research and other scholarly interests, and receive support to attend and/or present their work at professional conferences, preparing them for leadership in clinical, academic, and policy settings

Formal Teaching

Fellows participate in a structured series of conferencesdidactics that build expertise in addiction medicine while developing skills in patient-centered communication, trauma-informed care, structural competency, and the critical appraisal and application of emerging research to clinical care and policy: and didactics designed to build knowledge, critical thinking, and presentation skills, including:

  • A one-week orientation boot camp during the first week of fellowship
  • A weekly Chief’s Conference covering key addiction-related topics including a series on motivational interviewing
  • A monthly Addiction Medicine/Addiction Psychiatry Journal Club
  • A monthly Addiction Medicine/Addiction Psychiatry Case Conference or Didactic Session
  • Weekly national virtual didactics hosted by the American College of Academic Addiction Medicine (ACAAM)

Each fellow presents at least once at both a Journal Club and Case Conference and completes a faculty-mentored quality improvement (QI) project. Recent QI projects have addressed topics such as:

  • Universal naloxone prescribing on discharge
  • Implementation of harm reduction services in primary care
  • Inpatient recovery support groups
  • Creation of a database to track outcomes for hospitalized patients with substance use disorders
  • Improving naloxone prescribing among pediatric palliative care clinicians

Advocacy Curriculum and Project
With faculty mentorship, fellows complete a longitudinal advocacy project that develops practical skills in policy and systems change. Fellows work individually or collectively to identify a policy issue that aligns with their interests and develop and implement an advocacy strategy through conducting a policy analysis, mapping key decision-makers, and engaging with community partners and policymakers.

Scholarly and Community Engagement

Fellows are encouraged to participate in local and national conferences and community events that foster professional development, networking, and scholarly dissemination, including:

 

For more information, please contact: 

Tiffany Thomas
Addiction Medicine Program Coordinator
dixont2@upmc.edu

Pitt STREAM

Dr. Maggie Shang (left) presenting her fellowship QI project with mentor Dr. Raagini Jawa (right) at AMERSA.

In addition to teaching residents and medical students during overlapping rotations, fellows interested in academic teaching can build their skills in bedside and classroom teaching through the following opportunities:

  • Internal Medicine residency motivational interviewing curriculum
  • Pediatrics residency SBIRT curriculum
  • Medical student workshops on topics like harm reduction

 
Our program also supports fellows to apply for national scholarly programs and awards:

 

ASAM Ruth Fox Scholarship Recipients

  • Reed Nerness MD (2026)
  • Cynthia Pathmathasan MD (2025)
  • Ilana Hull MD MSc (2022)
  • Kento Sonoda MD (2022)

 

Reach 2.0 Program

  • Cynthia Pathmathasan MD, 2026-2027 Neer Peers

 

Addiction Medicine fellows with faculty at ASAM 2026 Annual Conference in San Diego (pictured left to right: Drs. Reed Nerness, Julie Childers, Jonathan Weinhold, Andrea Gaspar)