#ACMT2025
Important Dates

Accepting Abstracts
September 1 – November 15, 2024

MTF Shark Tank Deadline
December 4, 2024

MedTox Case Panel Deadline
January 10, 2025

Open Mic Competition Deadline
January 10, 2025

Early-Bird Registration Deadline
February 21, 2025

ACMT Symposium: Harm Reduction in the Management of Substance Use Disorders (SUD)


Join the American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) on Thursday, April 3, 2025 for the ACMT Symposium: Harm Reduction in the Management of SUD at the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver, Canada.

Harm reduction has become a key tool in managing substance use disorders (SUD), yet remains loosely defined. It encompasses various measures, including needle exchanges, naloxone distribution, safe consumption sites, and fentanyl test strips. While needle exchange programs have proven effective in reducing infections from intravenous drug use, the impact of other harm reduction strategies is harder to quantify.

Support for harm reduction varies among professionals and the recovery community, with its success depending on when and where the tools are used, the methods chosen, and the combination with other treatments. Different settings—emergency departments, ICUs, or outpatient clinics—may require distinct approaches.

Vancouver’s pioneering leadership in harm reduction makes it an ideal location for this full-day in-person symposium, which will explore harm reduction in detail, presenting the latest evidence and examining its application in special populations, healthcare settings, and recovery stages. Topics include integrating harm reduction with SUD medications and substance use education, inpatient high-dose methadone titration, and a case-based panel discussion on “Lived Experience.” The symposium will appeal to a wide range of professionals in medicine, including those in family medicine, emergency medicine, medical toxicology, addiction medicine, and beyond.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Analyze the evidence surrounding various harm reduction strategies in the management of substance use disorders, with a focus on their effectiveness across different settings and populations.
  2. Evaluate the role of harm reduction tools at different stages of the recovery process and identify how they can be integrated with other treatment modalities to optimize patient outcomes.
  3. Discuss the ethical and practical considerations of harm reduction practices, including the perspectives of healthcare providers, patients, and the broader recovery community.

Continuing Education: Continuing Medical Education (CME), Continuing Pharmacy Education (CPE) and Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) credits are available for this activity. It is expected that learners will receive up to 6.00 credits for learning and change.

Keynote Speakers

Daniel Ciccarone, MD MPH

Dr. Daniel Ciccarone is the Justine Miner Professor of Addiction Medicine in the Department of Family & Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. A specialist in Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine, Dr. Ciccarone has served as principal or co-investigator on numerous NIH-funded public health research projects. He currently leads the Heroin in Transition study, a multidisciplinary effort employing ethnographic, economic, and statistical modeling to explore the rise in heroin use, the growing variety of heroin source-forms, and the impact of illicitly manufactured synthetic opioids, such as fentanyls, on opioid-related mortality and morbidity. His research has been widely published in leading journals, including JAMA, NEJM, AJPH, IJDP, and PLoS Medicine. Additionally, Dr. Ciccarone serves as Associate Editor for the International Journal of Drug Policy and recently edited a special issue on the “triple wave crisis” of opioids, heroin, and fentanyl in the U.S.

Patricia Daly, MD

Dr. Patricia Daly is the Vice President, Public Health and Chief Medical Health Officer for Vancouver Coastal Health and a Clinical Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. As a public health physician, she focuses on improving population health through prevention, health promotion, communicable disease control, environmental health, and public health surveillance. Dr. Daly earned her medical degree from the University of Toronto in 1985 and worked as a family and emergency physician before completing specialty training at McGill University and the University of Toronto, earning a fellowship in Community Medicine in 1992. After moving to Vancouver in 1993, she served at the BC Centre for Disease Control and later at the Vancouver/Richmond Health Board. Since the formation of Vancouver Coastal Health in 2001, she has continued to lead communicable disease control efforts, assuming her current role in 2007. In addition to her leadership duties, Dr. Daly consults with health professionals, advises the public on key health issues, and teaches medical students and residents at UBC.

Guy Felicella

Guy Felicella, raised in a middle-class home in British Columbia, fell into addiction at a young age due to trauma, undiagnosed ADHD, and struggles at home and school. He spent 30 years trapped in cycles of gangs, addiction, treatment, and jail, including two decades living homeless in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, surviving the HIV/AIDS crisis, severe infections, and six overdoses. Now with over a decade of sobriety, Guy lives with his wife and three children and is a passionate advocate for harm reduction, recovery, and ending addiction stigma. A sought-after international speaker, he shares his story at conferences, schools, and TEDx Talks, inspiring hope and educating communities on the importance of comprehensive care.

Agenda

All times listed in local, Pacific Time. Download the draft agenda.

7:00 AM – 9:00 AMOptional Fieldtrip: Insite, Supervised Injection Site

Those who register will be transported by charter bus from the conference hotel to Insite for this unique opportunity to witness harm reduction practices firsthand and explore the impact of North America’s first supervised injection site on the local community.
Purchase ticket
Cost: $40

This opportunity is limited to #ACMT2025 Harm Reduction Symposium registrants only, and there are only 25 spots available on the tour, so be sure to sign up early!
9:45 AM – 10:00 AMWelcome & Opening Remarks
10:00 AM – 11:00 AMDonovan Lecture | On the Streets with Evolving Polysubstance Use — The Rise of ‘Fentanyl-Plus’ and Its Impact on Mortality, Morbidity, and Harm Reduction

This lectureship is supported by the Medical Toxicology Foundation through the Ward and Ryan Donovan Memorial Fund. For more info, please visit: www.acmt.net/donovan-lectureship
Daniel Ciccarone, MD MPH, Justine Miner Prof of Addiction Medicine, Family and Community Medicine, Univ of California San Francisco 
11:00 AM – 12:00 PMPolitics and History of Harm Reduction in Vancouver, Successes & Challenges Patricia Daly, MD, Chief Medical Health Officer, Vancouver Coastal Health; Clinical Professor, School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
12:00 PM – 1:15 PMBreak (75 min)
1:15 PM – 2:00 PMLived Experience in Action: Harm Reduction and Recovery in Vancouver’s Downtown EastsideGuy Felicella, International Public Speaker, Drug Policy Advocate, Vancouver
2:00 PM – 2:45 PMVoices of Experience: A Discussion on Living and Practicing Harm ReductionModerator: Leslie Dye, MD FACMT FASAM, Medical Director, OneFifteen; Clinical Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University, Dayton, OH

Panelists:
Charlene Burmeister
, Harm Reduction Worker, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC)
Daniel Ciccarone, MD MPH, Justine Miner Professor of Addiction Medicine, Family and Community Medicine, UCSF, San Francisco, CA
Patricia Daly, MD, Chief Medical Health Officer, Vancouver Coastal Health; Clinical Professor, School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Guy Felicella, International Public Speaker, Drug Policy Advocate, Vancouver
2:45 PM – 3:30 PMIntegrating Harm Reduction with Prevention, Treatment, and Personal Accountability: Saving Lives Without Creating Pill Mills 2.0Leslie Dye, MD FACMT FASAM, Medical Director, OneFifteen; Clinical Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University, Dayton, OH
3:30 PM – 4:00 PMRapidly Increasing Methadone Doses, Scaring Medical ToxicologistsRobert Cole Pueringer, MD, Medical Toxicologist and Addiction Medicine Specialist, Essentia Health
4:00 PM – 4:15 PMBreak (15 min)
4:15 PM – 5:00 PMIntegrating Harm Reduction Approaches in Hospital Care: Inpatient Substance Use PoliciesModerator: Anthony Spadaro, MD, Fellow-in-Training, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School

Panelists:
Gillian Beauchamp
, MD, FACMT, FASAM, Program Director, Medical Toxicology Fellowship; Associate Professor, Lehigh Valley Health Network; USF Morsani College of Medicine, Allentown, PA
Evan Schwarz, MD, FACMT, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
5:00 PM – 5:45 PMTiming is Everything: Harm Reduction for Special Populations — An Interactive Case-Based Discussion of Who, When, and WhereModerator: Ashley Haynes, MD FACEP, Medical Toxicologist, Addiction Medicine Specialist, Veterans Health Administration

Panelists:
JoAn Laes
, MD, FACMT, FASAM, Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Allina Health, Minneapolis, MN
Timothy J. Wiegand, MD FACMT DFASAM, Director of Toxicology and of the Toxicology Consult Service, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY
5:45 PM – 6:00 PMClosing Remarks