At 5:13 ET April 12, 2016, the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) passed a resolution that will provide DOs who are ABAM diplomats with a process to attain an AOA subspecialty certification in Addiction Medicine.

Since 2002, when the AOA closed the clinical pathway to the addiction medicine subspecialty/CAQ, 390 osteopathic physicians sought and obtained an ABAM certification outside of the AOA. ABAM recently entered into an agreement under which its certification program will be administered by the American Board of Preventive Medicine (an American Board of Medical Specialties, ABMS board) and the new subspecialty of Addiction Medicine will be open to any physician certified by any of the 24 Member Boards of the ABMS. As a result, osteopathic physicians who have primary certification from AOA Certifying Boards are effectively shut out of the ABMS process.

The resolution calls for the AOA to create a mechanism to allow those osteopathic physicians who have an active AOA primary certification and an active ABAM certification to be granted subspecialty/CAQ certification in Addiction Medicine, with a requirement that they maintain such certification through the AOA’s Addiction Medicine Osteopathic Continuous Certification (OCC) process.

"For 30 years, securing a process for an Addiction Medicine CAQ has been promoted by the American Osteopathic Academy of Addiction Medicine(AOAAM). It has been a key part of our mission and couldn’t come at more critical time," said AOAAM President Dr. William Morrone. "With the exponential increase of substance misuse and addiction, expanding the expert workforce needed to wrestle the challenge is paramount. Every past president should be recognized for their dedication, perseverance and commitment in making this possible," said Dr. Morrone.

Members will receive more detailed information as it becomes available. AOAAM is hosting a small town hall session at the ASAM 2016 Annual Conference in Baltimore where AOAAM officials can provide more details about the ramifications of this milestone and answer questions.