On March 14, 2016, the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM) announced that the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) now recognizes Addiction Medicine as a subspecialty. Certification in an ABMS-recognized specialty or sub-specialty is considered the “gold standard” in physician credentialing, assuring that physicians meet the highest standards of practice and clinical knowledge and have completed an approved educational program and process. Certification will also benefit physicians in obtaining hospital privileges, all health providers in procuring insurance reimbursement, and patients in securing insurance coverage. Additionally, this new status will increase the visibility of addiction medicine, leading to greater awareness of evidence-based treatment.

William White Papers

Historian/author Bill White archives an extensive collection of interviews with addiction medicine pioneers, early professional journals, book reviews, presentations, and other topics that have created Addiction Medicine as we know it today.

California Society of Addiction Medicine (CSAM)

Organized in 1973, CSAM was one of the early professional associations to look on addiction as a disease, a model now almost universally accepted in the medical and political communities. Founded by physicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, and strongly influenced by David E. Smith, MD and others from the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics (then known as Youth Projects, Inc.), CSAM also played a significant role in developing programs for the identification and treatment of impaired physicians and other clinicians.