Faculty

Gail D’Onofrio, MD, MS is the Albert E. Kent Professor of Emergency Medicine and was the Inaugural Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine (2009-2021) and Physician-in Chief of Emergency Services at Yale New Haven Hospital EDs with an annual census of approximately 180,000 patients. She is also Professor in the School of Public Health in the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, and Professor of Internal Medicine, Core Faculty in Addiction) and is boarded in emergency and addiction medicine.  Internationally known for her work in alcohol and other substance use disorders (SUDs) as well as her research on gender variations in women with ischemic heart disease, Dr. D’Onofrio has extensive experience as a leader, researcher, mentor and educator. Her work (JAMA, 2015) demonstrating that ED-initiated buprenorphine increases engagement in addiction treatment for individuals with OUD, has changed clinical practice, receiving multiple science awards, including awards from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, the Clinical Research Forum and the R. Brinkley Smithers and Distinguished Scientist Award by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (2021), ACEP's Innovation & Excellence in Behavioral Health & Addiction Medicine Award (2022) and Boston University Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient (2022). Dr. D’Onofrio is an independent NIH-funded physician-scientist with over two decades of experience designing and implementing clinical trials in the ED setting related to alcohol and drug use, most notably the initiation of buprenorphine for opioid use disorder, that has changed clinical practice.  She is a MPI of the  NIDA Clinical Trials Network (CTN) New England Consortium Node, and currently Lead Investigator on several multisite trials testing implementation of ED-initiated buprenorphine and effectiveness of different formulations and dosing of buprenorphine. She is also a Hub MPI of the the NHLBI-NINDS funded SIREN network (Yale-METRO), covering NYC and Northeast sites, that conducts large phase III clinical trials in emergency and critical care.   Dr. D’Onofrio has a long track record of mentoring physician scientists in independent research careers. She is the PI of a NIDA K12 establishing the Yale Drug Use, Addiction and HIV Research Scholars (Yale-DAHRS) program, a Mentored Career Development Program with focused training in prevention and treatment of drug use, addiction, and HIV in general medical settings with scholars in Medicine, Emergency Medicine (EM), Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pulmonary Critical Care; and she has mentored numerous faculty, at Yale and beyond that have become NIH funded investigators.  She has received several awards which reflect her dedication to mentorship and nurturing careers of junior investigators, including Excellence in Mentoring award from the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA 2008), Advancing Women in Emergency Medicine award from the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM 2016) and the Academy for Women in Academic Emergency Medicine (AWAEM) Outstanding Department Award for the advancement of women (SAEM 2018) and the Distinguished Chair Award from the Association of Academic Chairs in Emergency Medicine (2022) Dr. D’Onofrio is a founding Board member of the Board of Addiction Medicine recognized by ABMS as a Specialty, Sub-specialty.  An advocate for individuals with SUD, she is one of the architects of Connecticut Governor’s Strategic Plan to Reduce Opioid Deaths, working with multiple agencies regionally and nationally to change policies and introduce interventions to combat the opioid crisis. She served on the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse for the National Institutes of Health and is currently a member of the NIH HEAL Initiative Multi-Disciplinary Working Group.

Research Interests: Dr. O’Connor has focused his research on the interface between primary care and addiction medicine. This has included research examining the transfer of addiction treatment strategies from “specialty” settings to primary care and other general medical settings. His publications in this area include studies on the management of opioid withdrawal in primary care settings, opioid maintenance in primary care, and the use of naltrexone for treating alcohol dependence in primary care patients. He has been active in medical education on addiction both nationally and internationally and has served as the President of The Association for Multidisciplinary Education and Research on Substance use and Addiction (AMERSA) and of the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM) and The Addiction Medicine Foundation. Selected Recent Publications:O’Connor, PG. Brief Interventions for Problem Drinking: Another Piece of the Puzzle. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2007; 146(3):223-225. Martell BA, O’Connor PG, Kerns RD, Becker WC, Morales KH, Kosten TR, and Fiellin DA. Systematic Review: Opioid treatment for chronic back pain: prevalence, efficacy and association with addiction. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2007; 146:116-127. Sledge, WH, Brown, KE, Levine, JM, Fiellin, DA, Chawarski, M, White, WD, O’Connor, PG. A Randomized Trial of Primary Intensive Care to Reduce Hospital Admissions in Patients with High Utilization of Inpatient Services. Disease Management. 2006; 9(6)328-338. O’Connor PG. Problem Drinkers: Find Them, Keep Them, Don’t Lose Them, Treat Them. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2005; 20(1):96-97. D’Onofrio G, MS; Pantalon MV, Degutis LC, Fiellin DA, O’Connor PG. Development and Implementation of an Emergency Practitioner-Performed Brief Intervention for Harmful and Hazardous Drinkers in the Emergency Department. Academic Emergency Medicine. 2005; 12(3):249-256. O’Connor PG. Methods of Detoxification and Their Role in Managing Patients With Opioid Dependence. JAMA. 2005; 294(8):961-963. Sullivan LE, Fiellin DA, O’Connor PG. The prevalence and impact of alcohol problems in major depression: A systematic review. American Journal ofMedicine. 2005; 118(4):330-341. Kernan WE, Holmboe E, O’Connor PG. Assessing the teaching behaviors of ambulatory care preceptors. Academic Medicine. 2004; 79(11):1088-1094. O’Malley S, Rounsaville BJ, Farren C, Namkoong K, Wu R, Robinson J, O’Connor PG. Initial and Maintenance Naltrexone for Alcohol dependence using primary care vs. specialty care: A nested sequence of three randomized trials. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2003; 163(14):1695-1704. Kosten T, O’Connor PG. Current Concepts: Management of Drug and Alcohol Withdrawal. New England Journal of Medicine. 2003; 348(18):1786-1795. Reid MC, Engles-Horton LL, Weber MB, Kerns RD, Rogers EL, O’Connor PG. Use of opioid medications for chronic noncancer pain syndromes in primary care. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2002; 17(3):173-9. O’Connor PG. Treating opioid dependence—new data and new opportunities. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2000; 343(18):1332-4. Fiellin DA, Reid MC, O’Connor PG. Screening for alcohol problems in primary care: A systematic review. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2000; 160(13):1977-89. O’Connor PG, Fiellin DA. Pharmacologic treatment of heroin-dependent patients. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2000; 133(1):40-54. D’Onofrio G, Fiellin DA, Pantalon MV, Chawarski MC, Owens P, Degutis LC, Busch SH, Bernstein SL, O’Connor PG. A brief intervention reduces hazardous and harmful drinking in emergency department patients. Annals of Emergency Medicine 2012, 60:181-192. PMID: 22459448. Moore BA, Barry DT, Sullivan LE, O'Connor PG, Cutter CJ, Schottenfeld RS, Fiellin DA.Counseling and directly observed medication for primary care buprenorphine maintenance: a pilot study. Journal of Addiction Medicine 2012, 6(3):205-211. PMID: 22614936. Tetrault JM, Moore BA, Barry DT, O’Connor PG, Schottenfeld R, Fiellin DA, Fiellin LE. Brief versus extended counseling along with buprenorphone/naloxone for HIV-infected opioid dependent patients. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 2012, 43(4):433-439. PMID: 22938914. Fiellin DA, Barry DT, Sullivan LE, Cutter CJ, Moore BA, O’Connor PG, Schottenfeld RS. A randomized trial of cognitive behavioral therapy in primary care-based buprenorphine. American Journal of Medicine 2013, 126(1):74-9. PMID: 23260506. O’Connor PG. Managing substance dependence as a chronic disease: is the glass half full or half empty? JAMA 2013, 310(11):1132-4. PMID: 24045739. Edelman EJ, Chantarat T, Caffrey S, Chaudhry A, O'Connor PG, Weiss L, Fiellin DA, Fiellin LE. The impact of buprenorphine/naloxone treatment on HIV risk behaviors among HIV-infected, opioid-dependent patients. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2014, 139:79-85. PMID: 24726429. Gueorguieva R, Wu R, O’Connor PG, Weisner C, Fucito LM, Hoffman S, Mann K, O’Malley SS. Predictors of abstinence from heavy drinking during treatment in COMBINE and external validation in PREDICT. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 2014, 38(10):2647-2656. PMID: 25346505. O’Connor PG, Sokol RJ, D’Onofrio G. Addiction medicine: the birth of a new discipline. JAMA Internal Medicine 2014, 174(11):1717-1718. PMID: 25201642. Fiellin DA, Schottenfeld, RS, Cutter CJ, Moore BA, Barry DT, O’Connor PG. Primary care–based buprenorphine taper vs maintenance therapy for prescription opioid dependence: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Internal Medicine 2014, 174(12):1947-54. PMID: 25330017 Tetrault JM, O’Connor PG. Unhealthy alcohol use, including alcohol use disorder: Epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, course assessment, and diagnosis. UpToDate 20 Bagley S, Peterson J, Cheng DM, Jose C, Quinn E, O’Connor PG, Walley AY. Overdose Education and Naloxone Rescue Kits for Family Members of Individuals Who Use Opioids: Characteristics, Motivations, and Naloxone Use. Substance Abuse 2015, 36(2):149-54. PMID: 25564892. Fiellin D, Samet J, O’Connor PG. Addressing bias in observational studies of alcohol withdrawal syndrome: a call to the field. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 2015, 39(2):390. PMID: 25665029. D'Onofrio G, O'Connor PG, Pantalon MV, Chawarski MC, Busch SH, Owens PH, Bernstein SL, Fiellin DA. Emergency department-initiated buprenorphine/naloxone treatment for opioid dependence: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2015, 313(16):1636-44. PMID: 25919527. O’Connor PG. Alcohol use disorder. In Goldman-Cecil Medicine, 25th Edition, 2015:149-156. Gueorguieva R, Wu R, Tsai W, O’Connor PG,Fucito L, Zhang H, O’Malley SS.An analysis of moderators in the COMBINE Study: Identifying subgroups of patients who benefit from acamprosate. European Neuropsychopharmacology. 2015 Oct;25(10):1586-99. PMID: 26141511. Edelman EJ, Hansen NB, Cutter CJ, Danton, C, Fiellin LE, O'Connor PG, Williams EC, Maisto SA, Bryant K, Fiellin DA. Implementation of Integrated Stepped Care for Unhealthy Alcohol Use in HIV Clinics. Addiction Science and Clinical Practice. 2016 Jan 13, 11: 1. PMID: 26763048. Education:B.S., Union College, 1978M.D., The Albany Medical College, 1982M.P.H., Yale University School of Medicine, 1988 Training: Internal Medicine Residency: The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 1982-1985Chief Residency: The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 1985-1986Fellowship: The Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, Yale University, 1986-1988