Grant: Embedded Clinician Researcher Salary Award - Western Canada

Untreated alcohol and drug addiction is linked to an enormous burden of disease. Bringing evidence into prevention, treatment, and care for substance use disorders is key to managing the ethical and economical costs of untreated alcohol and drug addiction. Strategies to incorporate evidence into addiction care include the development of clinical guidelines and other tools of practice, and filling the gaps in clinical education. There is also a need for individual components of the addiction care system to connect, rather than operate independently of one another, to improve patient access to treatment across all aspects of care. The proposed program of research aims to shift this, by actively engaging health care providers, researchers, and allied health professionals in the advancement of evidence-based addiction care and treatment. Specifically, this program intends to close the research to practice gap by developing and implementing evidence-based guidelines, creating and evaluating care pathways that target gaps in the health care systems, strengthening evidence by conducting a robust program of clinical trials, and mentoring and training the next generation of health care professionals in evidence-based addiction medicine and clinical research.