St. Paul’s Hospital’s unique addiction fellowship program

published on November 19, 2015 by Jenica Montgomery in Providence Health Care News

When it comes to innovative health research and care, St. Paul’s continues to be at the forefront of Vancouver’s mind. The St. Paul’s Hospital Goldcorp Addiction Medicine Fellowship and the Canada Addiction Medicine Research Fellowship are just another example of St. Paul’s paving the path for better care.

The St. Paul’s Hospital Goldcorp Addiction Medicine Fellowship is one of only two programs of its kind in Western Canada and is the largest inter-disciplinary addiction medicine fellowship in North America.

It’s important that training programs are developed to bring physicians, nurses, and other health care providers up to speed so that they can provide the best support and treatment for patients with addiction. Training programs are also an important step in creating recognized sub-specialties in medicine.

“You need comprehensive training programs in order to support a specialty area of medicine to be recognized, and that’s what’s happening in the United States at the moment,” said Annabel Mead, Director of the St. Paul’s Hospital Goldcorp Addiction Medicine Fellowship. Currently, the US has at least 27 addiction medicine fellowship programs available to physicians.

“In Canada Addiction Medicine is not recognized as a sub-specialty. It is an important goal to achieve this recognition in order to increase access of patients to addiction treatment and ensure high levels of skill and expertise in the practice of Addiction Medicine. Knowledge and techniques in this field have developed to such a degree that understanding and application of this work by all doctors cannot be expected.”