Welcome

Welcome to Boston University’s Faculty Education in Addiction Training (FEAT) Program. We are excited to offer a first-of-its-kind online program specifically designed for health professions educators. Substance misuse is a major problem impacting the lives of millions of Americans—and yet, we know that many health professionals do not feel sufficiently equipped to address substance-related problems. In recent years, with funding from the National Institutes of Health, we have provided in-person immersion training for physician and social work educators, resulting in improved substance use knowledge and skill leading to increased substance-related teaching. Using an online format, the FEAT Program is the next step in our train-the-educators efforts.

Program Overview

Our program consists of several main components, including didactic videos, online engagement with content experts, recommended readings, and a live classroom experience focused on strategies for teaching health professionals about substance use disorders. Below we provide a succinct overview of each of these components.

Didactic Videos

Central to our online training program are didactic videos. These videos, all around 15 minutes in duration, touch on a variety of foundational topics such as: The Science of Addiction, The Psychosocial Aspects of Addiction, Medications for Treating Addiction, and Understanding 12-Step Programs and Making Effective Referrals. Four of these videos are required viewing for FEAT Fellows, and we provide several additional videos that are optional viewing. Videos will be led by Daniel Alford, MD, MPH and Maryann Amodeo, PhD, MSW, both national leaders in addiction training. *Video access is password protected.

Ask the Experts

As a complement to our teaching faculty, we have assembled a team of experts with extensive clinical and teaching experience in addictions. To facilitate active engagement with program content, FEAT Fellows are asked to pose questions to and converse with our experts via our program discussion board. Questions can be about course content, treatment resources, teaching methods and materials, organizational issues, or anything else related to understanding and teaching health professionals about substance use disorders. If you have a question, please ask it!

Live Classroom

In order to integrate the program experience, FEAT Fellows will participate in a one-hour live session focused on strategies for teaching health professionals about substance use disorders. During this live session, Dr. Alford and Dr. Amodeo will engage with participants and discuss teaching methods used in their prior work. We will also ask Fellows to discuss pedagogical methods they have found effective in their own teaching. The live classroom will be held in the final week of April 2019.

Program Evaluation

As participants, we need your feedback. We want to assess your knowledge and teaching confidence coming into the program and after you participate. You will be asked to fill out a number of short surveys and some participants will be asked to take part in focus groups after the completion of the program. FEAT Fellows who complete the baseline and follow-up surveys will receive gift cards.