SPOTLIGHT ED-Initiated Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder
PHYSICIAN AT THE FOREFRONT
"It is not only important to keep the roads clear and paved (i.e. use evidence-based best practices) but we must always be building new roads."
SAEM PULSE | MARCH-APRIL 2018
SAEM Pulse Talks With Dr. Gail D’Onofrio, SAEM18 Keynote Speaker
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Gail D’Onofrio, MD, MS is professor and the inaugural chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale University and physician-in-chief of Emergency Services at Yale-New Haven Hospital. She is internationally known for her work in substance use disorders, women’s cardiovascular health, and mentoring physician scientists in developing independent research careers. For the past 25 years she has developed and tested interventions for alcohol, opioids, and other substance use disorders, serving as principal investigator on several large National Institutes of Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies. Dr. D’Onofrio has a long track record of mentoring junior and senior faculty members both at Yale and throughout the United States in multiple specialties. She is the principle investigator of a National Institute on Drug Abuse K12 establishing the Yale Drug Use, Addiction, and HIV Research Scholars (Yale-DAHRS) program, a three-year postdoctoral, interdisciplinary, mentored career development program with focused training in prevention and treatment of drug use, addiction, and HIV in general medical setting. She is a founding board member of Addiction Medicine, now recognized as a new subspecialty by the American Board of Medical Specialties. Dr. D’Onofrio will open SAEM18 on Wednesday, May 16, with a keynote address titled The Opioid Crisis: Emergency Physicians as Innovators, Policymakers, and Heroes. Sharon Atencio, DO, chair of the SAEM Pulse Editorial Advisory Task Force, interviewed Dr. D’Onofrio for this issue.
Before medical school, you were a nurse, a consultant for Hewlett-Packard, and then founder and president of your own consulting firm. How did these experiences lead you to medicine? I always wanted to be a doctor for as far back as I can remember. I did special science projects in elementary and middle school and enrolled in all advanced science classes in high school. I am not sure how the transition occurred that I entered college for nursing. I can tell you there were few role models back then and NO advice given to me by guidance counselors. To make a long story short, I followed my first husband to Boston as he had a full ride to MIT for graduate school. Eventually the marriage dissolved and I followed my passion and applied to medical school. Prior to that I had completed a master’s