Project ECHO: Methadone in the Age of Fentanyl
August 8 – Cara Zimmerman, MD, MBA | Transition in Methadone and Buprenorphine
September 12 – David Kispert, MD | Methadone in the Age of Fentanyl
October 10 – Stephanie Nichols, PharmD, BCPP, MPH | Drug Interactions with Methadone
November 14 – Alane O’Connor DNP | Methadone and Pregnant People
December 12 – Jacquelyn Cyr, FNP | Regulations of Methadone
January 9 – Cara Zimmerman, MD, MBA | Pain and Methadone
Dr. Zimmerman, Addiction Medicine specialist and Medical Director of Primary Care Based Substance Use Disorder Treatment at a large community health center in Rhode Island, will review which patients would be better served with the different types of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). Participants will learn the step-by-step process of a micro induction to transition a patient on methadone to buprenorphine without having the patient stop their methadone.
Learning objectives:
1. Offer a framework for a patient to choose methadone versus buprenorphine depending on their goals and drug use patterns.
2. Gain comfort in a 5-day process for patients switching from buprenorphine to methadone, allowing them to CONTINUE methadone to avoid opioid withdrawal.
Speaker
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Cara Zimmerman MD MBACara Zimmerman, MD, MBA, is the Medical Director of Primary Care-Based Substance Use Disorder Treatment (MAT/OBAT) at Thundermist Health Center. She completed her Addiction Medicine and Internal Medicine training at Brown University and is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brown University. She is a staunch advocate for harm reduction in her primary care and addiction practice and is interested in quality improvement and systems processes, nontraditional forms of care delivery such as street medicine, and behavior change. She is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the leading harm reduction organization in the state, Project Weber/RENEW. She consults as part of the Opioid Response Network to teach colleagues about substance use disorder and loves being part of a multidisciplinary team.
