Boston – Needham resident Daniel Alford, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) attending physician in the General Internal Medicine Department at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and associate medical director of the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Division with the Boston Public Health Commission, was one of 12 clinicians in the nation to receive the Nyswander-Dole Award. The award was presented at the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence’s (AATOD) recent national conference.
Since 1984, AATOD has presented this award to individuals who have devoted themselves to improving the lives of patients in the opioid treatment community and who were selected by their peers for extraordinary service in this community.
Alford has worked to expand opioid agonist treatment to primary care settings and developed guidelines for general healthcare providers for managing pain with methadone maintenance patients. He is considered the “go to expert” by the Department of Public Health and Bureau of Substance Abuse Services for policy development and best practices for opioid treatment.
Alford is a clinician educator with academic interests in chronic pain management and substance abuse disorders including the treatment of opioid dependence in primary care settings. He is the medical director for the SAMHSA Center for Substance Abuse Treatment funded Massachusetts Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral and Treatment (MASBIRT) program. The aim of MASBIRT is to expand alcohol and drug screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment in generalist health care settings in Massachusetts. He is also co-investigator for 2 NIH-funded projects aimed at training physician educators to teach substance abuse clinical practice.
Alford received his medical degree from BUSM and completed his residency at the former Boston City Hospital and his post residency at BMC.
AATOD was founded in 1984 to enhance the quality of patient care in treatment programs by promoting the growth and development of comprehensive opioid dependence treatment services throughout the United States.