Increasing Addiction Medicine Capacity in Canada: The Case for Collaboration in Education and Research

Collaboration in addiction medicine education and research is important in Canada. The large unmet need for addiction services will only be met by the relatively small number of addiction clinicians, researchers, educators and policy makers in Canada if they collaborate and grow in a coordinated fashion toward common goals. Leadership from national organizations will facilitate growth in a coordinated fashion, which will allow us to reach the goal of providing adequate treatment for those with addiction and related illnesses as quickly as possible. Recent developments give significant reason to be optimistic that there will be more rapid progress in the coming years. Important initiatives currently underway include: 1) the expansion of Addiction Medicine training programs across Canada, 2) a new federal government-sponsored initiative to build collaborations in Addictions research, and 3) an application for the first Canadian certification in Addiction Medicine based on a standardized competency based curriculum.