Dr. Randi Sokol, Program Director
Greetings!
Welcome to Cambridge Health Alliance's Addiction Medicine Fellowship!
Please check out our vision and mission statement, our faculty page, and our curriculum page to get a sense of who we are and what makes us "tick".
I am delighted to serve as the Program Director. I came to Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) in 2012, attracted to its mission to serve as a safety net hospital system (comprising Tufts and Harvard Medical Schools) for vulnerable populations across the greater Boston area. I have since stayed at CHA because I genuinely love the values and goals of the colleagues I work with and the patients we serve: We pride ourselves on promoting health equity and advocacy, integrating addiction care and mental health into primary care work, teaching evidence-based medicine in an evidence-based way, working collaboratively in interdisciplinary care teams to support our patients, placing emphasis on outpatient care, and I believe these values and principles are what makes this place so unique and special!
When I first became a faculty member and recognized my passion to lead efforts around chronic pain and addiction, I certainly doubted and questioned my knowledge and abilities. But, I quickly overcame my imposter syndrome, driven by a fierce desire to serve this patient population and I received incredible support from countless mentors and colleagues. Over a decade later, I have become a "guru" in group-based opioid treatment (GBOT--a term I helped coin in the medical literature) and teach other health care systems how to integrate group-based approaches. I have also led efforts to create and publish on a National Addiction Curriculum that teaches front-line providers about addiction and chronic pain using evidence-based teaching principles. I have also worked with my colleagues to create an interdisciplinary consult service for pain and addiction (that has been running for almost a decade), start SUD clinics, and create pathways of addiction care across our healthcare system that link our emergency rooms, inpatient, and outpatient services. In addition to serving as the Program Director for the Addiction Fellowship, I also direct the Pain/Addiction curriculum for our Family Medicine residents and I run the 4th Year Addiction Elective for Tufts medical students.
I have assembled a tremendous team of faculty members who have an impressive array of addiction-related expertise and experiences and are VERY committed to sharing this with our Fellows through teaching and mentoring.
I truly love what I do and am so excited to share that with others! I look forward to working with my Fellows, getting to know them at a personal level, and helping them nurture their passions and strengths. I am excited you are considering taking part in this journey with me!
If you are interested in learning more about the program or applying for this Fellowship, please contact Christina Parmaxides at cparmaxides@challiance.org or Janell Corbett at jccorbett@challiance.org
Best of luck to you in your future work and advocacy!
Randi Sokol, MD, MPH, MMedEd
Board Certified in Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine
Assistant Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine
Program Director, Cambridge Health Alliance Addiction Medicine Fellowship
Director of Faculty Development and Pain/Addictions Curriculum,
Tufts Family Medicine Residency Program at Cambridge Health Alliance
Instructor in Medicine, Part Time, Harvard Medical School