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International Certification Of Addiction Medicine

The International Society of Addiction Medicine (ISAM) was founded in 1999 to advance knowledge of addiction as a treatable disease, enhance the creditability of physicians involved in its treatment, and develop educational activities and consensus guidelines. As an increasing number of physicians dedicate a major portion of their practice to this specialty, raising their credibility and validating their practice through certification became a major goal of ISAM.

This Canadian lead study describes the growing consensus about the core competencies required of any physician who treats abusing or addicted patients: Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral for Treatment options including mutual help (SBIRT). The authors stress that, by comparison, the competencies for an addiction medicine specialty are far more extensive and understandably less defined. The first such certification exam in the United States was held in 1983 by the California Society of Addiction Medicine followed b y the first national exam in 1986 under the auspices of the American Society on Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependencies, which was changed to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) in 1989. In 2003, in Amsterdam, the Board of ISAM set the goal of developing comparable, affordable and creditable international certification.

The ISAM certification exam was based on three existing textbooks judged to be a repository of current knowledge in the field – texts backed by 150 peer reviewed journals in the addiction field. To enhance access to the exam an extensive list of prior education, experience, and references were recommended. Since 2005 the examination has been held 8 times. Candidates were from Canada (20), Egypt (37), and Saudi Arabia (37) and Hong Kong, Iceland, Kuwait, and Sudan as well.  The pass rate was 81%. The study concludes that international certification of addiction medicine is possible, the examination has performed well, and areas of improvement have been identified. Funding, standardized review courses, translation to additional languages, and complimenting the exam with an objective locally administered clinical examination are viewed as the next steps.

(e-Guebaly, N, Violoto,C,: The international certification of addiction medicine: validating clinical knowledge across borders. Substance Abuse, 32:77-83, 2011)

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