Addiction Medicine Fellowship
Welcome!
Mission Statement: The Addiction Medicine Fellowship at Carilion is dedicated to training compassionate clinicians who provide evidence-based healthcare for individuals and families affected by substance use disorders. Our mission is to improve community health through comprehensive training, clinical excellence, and fostering a spirit of inquiry and innovation.
Message from Dr. Simcox
As someone born and raised in Roanoke, I watched the opioid epidemic ravage my community and affect my friends and loved ones. The bestselling novel Dopesick was written about the region our program serves. It mentions people I knew growing up and discusses drug use in schools that I attended. Because my children will one day go to these same schools, I dedicated my career as an obstetrician-gynecologist to helping pregnant persons and their families affected by substance use disorders. Now, I have the unique opportunity to make more of a difference through medical education as the Fellowship Director.
I believe that an interdisciplinary, integrated care approach is paramount to whole-person care and that it is the responsibility of all healthcare providers in any specialty to become comfortable with the management of substance use disorders. With these principles in mind, this fellowship was created to provide comprehensive, patient-centered compassionate addiction care to the people of Southwestern Virginia through education, service, research, and community partnership.
We seek applicants with an interest in managing this disease in a largely rural region, where patients have complex psychosocial barriers. Applicants must be willing to work with an interdisciplinary team, be adaptable to multiple learning environments, and be willing to serve the community through collaborative partnerships, research, and creative thinking.
If this sounds like you, and you picture yourself living in a gorgeous mountain terrain with a plethora of outdoor activities to keep you entertained, consider our program. We appreciate your interest and invite all prospective fellows to apply.
Program Overview
Welcome to the Carilion Clinic Addiction Medicine Fellowship. Our program is a one-year, university-based fellowship accredited by the ACGME. Physicians who complete the fellowship are eligible to apply for board certification in Addiction Medicine. Most of the fellows' training will take place at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, a large, not-for-profit tertiary/quaternary hospital system affiliated with Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.
What distinguishes Carilion Clinic from many health systems is its vast geographic reach and longstanding focus on community health. Its seven hospitals and dozens of clinics in the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley extend throughout southwest Virginia, from the border of West Virginia to the North Carolina state line, reaching communities on the front lines of the opioid epidemic.
Fellows receive evidence-based, comprehensive training in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with substance-related health problems and substance use disorders along a continuum of care that includes inpatient, residential, outpatient treatments, early intervention, harm reduction, prevention education, and addiction research. Fellows will participate in the Domiciliary Care Program (DOM) at the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center, gain experience in prescribing methadone at a community-based Opioid Treatment Program (OTP), and spend time in Carilion Clinic’s interdisciplinary Office-Based Addiction Treatment (OBAT) Programs and Emerald Program for Pregnant and Parenting Women. Additionally, training will focus on motivational interviewing, screening/brief intervention (SBIRT), and START NOW methods (START NOW | Carilion Clinic).
The program is unique in that it can be tailored to the individual background and interests of the applicant. In a complex interdisciplinary team approach, fellows are an integral part of patient care. As they progress from direct to indirect supervision, they provide care to substance use disorder patients diverse in age, gender, and socioeconomic status, and with limited language proficiency or literacy and comorbid medical and psychiatric conditions. Fellows will provide care collaboratively with a team that includes but is not limited to counselors, psychologists, peer support specialists, addiction medicine faculty, and experts from other specialties: specifically, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pharmacy, Pain Management, Emergency Medicine, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Internal Medicine.
Our goal is to graduate trainees who uphold Carilion's mission to improve the health of the communities it serves.
Virginia Tech Partnership
Residents and fellows work closely with the students, medical educators, and research scientists from the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC. This partnership leverages Virginia Tech’s world-class strength in basic sciences, bioinformatics and engineering with Carilion Clinic’s highly experienced medical staff and rich history in graduate medical education.
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