Massachusetts Consortium NIDA Center of Excellence

The Massachusetts Consortium NIDA Center of Excellence (CoE) is a statewide consortium committed to the advancement of initiatives in medical education research across the Commonwealth’s four medical schools in the area of prescription drug abuse education targeting medical students and primary care residents.

Participating schools include: UMass Chan Medical School (lead school); Boston University School of Medicine; Tufts University School of Medicine; and Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance. 

The Massachusetts Consortium is one of 4 Centers of Excellence for Physician Information established in 2007 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at academic institutions across the country to serve as national models to support the advancement of addiction awareness, prevention, and treatment in primary care practices.  The other 3 NIDA CoEs are located at: Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, Nebraska; The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in collaboration with Drexel University College of Medicine; and the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences.  The NIDA CoEs were established in collaboration with the American Medical Association’s medical education research initiative known as iSTEP (Innovative Strategies for Transforming the Education of Physicians), a collaborative of 16 academic medical sites.

The Massachusetts Consortium utilizes a consensus model of shared leadership across the 4 participating medical schools.  In order to facilitate the consortium’s work, an administrative infrastructure has been established at UMass Chan Medical School, providing centralized coordination and technical assistance in key areas including project management, grant writing and evaluation methodology.

For additional information, contact Emily Ferrara, Massachusetts Consortium Manager at emily.ferrara@umassmed.edu. or at (508) 856-5134 or at (508) 856-5134