Growing a Competent Workforce in a Rural State: The University of Kentucky Bell Addiction Medicine Scholar Program

Michelle Lofwall, MD, DFASAM and DFAPA is a Professor in the Departments of Behavioral Science and Psychiatry and the Bell Alcohol and Addictions Endowed Chair at the University of Kentucky (UK). She is the medical director of UK’s Robert Straus and First Bridge Clinics, which provide comprehensive opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment within the UK Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. Her passion is in improving the care of patients with substance use disorders, and her research has included evaluation of novel treatments for opioid use disorder (e.g., buprenorphine implants and depot injections), physician training, understanding factors associated with buprenorphine diversion, and improving care of complex patients with OUD and deep-seated infections. She has received numerous teaching and mentoring awards and was an expert panel member for SAMHSA’s Treatment Improvement Protocol on Medication Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder and invited speaker to the National Academy of Medicine.