The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) awarded Dr. Gail D’Onofrio, Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine and Dr. Patrick O’Connor, Chief of the Section of General Internal Medicine, a “Mentored Clinical Scientists Development Program Award In Drug Abuse and Addiction” (K12).
The Yale-Drug Abuse, Addiction, and HIV Research Scholars (Yale-DAHRS) program provides “a comprehensive three year post-doctorate, interdisciplinary, Mentored Career Development Program to improve drug abuse, addiction, and HIV medical outcomes integrating prevention and treatment in general medical settings including ED, primary care, HIV, adolescent, and women’s health clinics.”
The program will train the next generation of clinician-scientists to screen for and treat addiction in a general medicine setting like emergency departments and primary care visits with an emphasis on inclusion of often underrepresented populations like women and minorities.
Scholars in the Yale-DAHRS program will be trained in research methodology, leadership, grant writing, responsible conduct of research, and statistics and design related to drug use, addiction, and HIV. The training will culminate in a Master of Health Sciences Degree and an application for National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant funding to aid the scholar in embarking on an independent research career in the field.
The program relies on collaboration between The Department of Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine. D’Onofrio, Principal Investigator, heads the program with a long history of research in drug addiction and prevention and a track record of active mentoring. O’Connor, Multiple Principal Investigator, brings a history of research on the interface of primary care and substance abuse as well as substantial leadership experience.
Core faculty mentors are Drs. Steven Bernstein, Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs in the Department of Emergency Medicine; David Fiellin, a Professor of Medicine, Investigative Medicine and Public Health; James Dziura, an Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine and the Deputy Director of the Yale Center for Analytical Sciences; Lynn Fiellin, Associate Professor of Medicine; and Janet Tate, an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of General Internal Medicine.
Faculty that will serve as research and academic mentors are Drs. Federico Vaca, Amy Justice, Linda Mayes, Susan Busch, Kimberly Yonkers, Robert Kerns, Cary Gross, Carrie Redlich, Sheryl Ryan, Guadalupe Garcia-Tsao, Joseph Lim, Marcella Nuñez-Smith, Samuel Ball, Emily Wang, Kathleen Carroll, John Krystal, Steve Martino, Robert Rosenheck, Rajita Sinha, Jody Sindelar, Janet P. Tate, Lori Post, Karen Santucci, Jessica Illuzzi, Jeanette Tetrault, Fuad Abujarad, Cynthia Brandt, Michael Pantalon, Ismene Petrakis, William Becker, and Anthony Tomassoni.