Li Li, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, was recently awarded a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to expand substance use disorder (SUD) training for medical students. The goal is not only to better equip medical students with the skill sets necessary to treat patients with SUD but also to ultimately address SUD as a national health crisis.
The grant, a collaboration between the UAB Heersink School of Medicine and Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, intends to provide medical students with standardized, evidence-based, anti-stigma education in an effort to improve student perceptions of the treatment success for individuals with SUD. It will do this using the MI CARES curriculum, a program focusing on empowering medical students to treat patients with SUD as having a chronic illness, requiring an individualized approach to care. It also aims to reframe any stigma surrounding SUD or opioid use disorder (OUD) to promote empathy toward patients with these diagnoses.
In Alabama, significant gaps exist in providing care for populations with SUD and OUD. In the past decade, Alabama has had the smallest increase in mental health care providers (7.6 per 100,000 population) and is currently ranked 50 out of 50 states for the number of mental health providers. Li, who is a course director for the “Introduction to Addiction Medicine” at UAB, a certified trainer by the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and has trained more than 200 physicians and advanced practice providers, hopes the new grant will help address these issues.
“The opioid crisis, a well-known public health emergency, needs to be addressed through sustainable workforce development, including training upcoming physicians in medical schools,” Li said. “Thus, educating and training medical students to treat persons with SUDs is a national priority. Collaborations across medical schools to promote material sharing will increase the uptake and offerings for students, which will prime students for addiction fellowships and training in primary care practice.”
Li’s pilot data shows that training during medical school helps improve student perceptions of the treatment success for persons with SUDs. “Hopefully, these students will enter residencies across the United States, bringing their medical school knowledge, skills, and training. They will be equipped to provide addiction prevention and treatment to patients in different specialties and settings, significantly expanding addiction care to people who need it,” she added.
The MI CARES curriculum is currently implemented in five other medical schools in Michigan as elective offerings; however, with the new grant it will eventually become a required activity for medical students at both UAB and Michigan State University. The grant aims to train a total of 600 individuals in the curriculum across a three-year period.
“After students have received comprehensive training in treating persons with SUDs, they will ultimately practice in numerous states, become champions to provide addiction care, and mentor other providers for addiction care,” Li said. “Doing so will promote a physician pipeline poised to lead SUD healthcare, address inequalities in health care, and promote health and wellness in the populations.”