Low-Threshold Bridge Clinics and Potential Rural Adaptations

Please join us on Wednesday, February 26, 2025, from 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. ET for a UVM CORA Community Rounds Workshop Series panel session, “Low-Threshold Bridge Clinics and Potential Rural Adaptations.” Our speakers are Joanna Streck, PhD, Assistant Professor dually appointed in the Department of Psychiatry and the Division of General Internal Medicine, and a Staff Psychologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) SUD Bridge Clinic, and Sarah Wakeman, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Senior Medical Director for SUD at Mass General Brigham and Medical Director of Program of Substance Use and Addiction Services at MGH. This presentation will discuss low threshold SUD treatment models including low barrier Bridge Clinics and how this issue affects members of rural communities. 

Learning objectives:

1. Describe low threshold addiction treatment models 
2. Define the Bridge Clinic treatment model including pharmacotherapy and behavioral health components
3. Outline and discuss potential rural adaptations and considerations for low threshold treatment 

Speakers

Joanna Streck, PhD,

Joanna M. Streck, PhD (she/her/hers), is an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, the Associate Director of Addiction Science Research and Programs in the Health Promotion and Resiliency Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a Core Faculty Member in the MGH Tobacco Research and Treatment Center and MGH Center for Addiction Medicine, and a licensed Staff Psychologist at the MGH Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Bridge Clinic. Her primary program of research seeks to develop and test effective interventions for treating adults with SUD with a focus on those with opioid use disorder and tobacco use disorder.

Sarah Wakeman, MD

Sarah E. Wakeman, MD is the Senior Medical Director for Substance Use Disorder at Mass General Brigham in the Office of the Chief Medical Officer, Medical Director for the Mass General Hospital Program for Substance Use & Addiction Services, Program Director of the Mass General Addiction Medicine fellowship, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She received her A.B. from Brown University and her M.D. from Brown Medical School. She completed residency training in internal medicine and served as Chief Medical Resident at Mass General Hospital. She is a diplomate and fellow of the American Board of Addiction Medicine and board certified in Addiction Medicine by the American Board of Preventive Medicine. Clinically she provides specialty addiction and general medical care in the inpatient and outpatient setting at Mass General Hospital and the Mass General Charlestown Health Center. Her research interests include integrated substance use disorder treatment in general medical settings, low threshold treatment models, and opioid use disorder treatment.