• Funder: Health Resources & Services Administration
• PI: Alison Lynch, MD, MS
• Grant Period: 7/1/2020 - 6/30/2025
• Total Amount: $1,316,081

The University of Iowa's Addiction Medicine Fellowship aims to increase the number of Addiction Medicine specialty-trained physicians in Iowa and to enhance addiction medicine knowledge and skills among faculty physicians at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. The goal is to train more physicians from diverse specialties who will practice in community-based settings, providing high-quality, evidence-based care to medically underserved populations. This initiative increases access to comprehensive care throughout the healthcare system in Iowa.

• Funder: Iowa Department of Health and Human Services
• PI(s): Ben Miskle, PharmD 
• Grant Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2028
• Total Amount: $1,382,088

The Integrated Addiction Care Coordination and Essential Support Services (iACCESS) Program is a telehealth network for delivery of integrated addiction recovery and infectious disease screening and treatment services for people with substance use disorders in Iowa. iACCESS serves patients who are at an increased risk for having an infectious disease, including HIV or hepatitis C and interested in receiving treatment for HIV, hepatitis C, or other infectious diseases.

• Funder: Health Resources & Services Administration
• PI: Alison Lynch, MD, MS
• Grant Period: 7/1/2022 - 6/30/2027
• Total Amount: $2,258,032

The University of Iowa’s Integrated Substance Use Disorder Training Program’s (ISTP) aim is to increase the number of addiction medicine specialty-trained nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Our goal is to meet the increasing demand for behavioral health care services in underserved communities by training health professionals to provide high quality integrated mental health and substance use disorder treatment. 

• Funder: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• PI: Ben Miskle, PharmD
• Grant Period: 9/30/2023 - 9/29/2027
• Total Amount: $1,000,000

IA-NEXT aims to expand access to naloxone in schools across Iowa. School districts are offered support through the entire process, including addressing myths and stigmas surrounding opioid overdose and naloxone, updating district policies and procedures, training school staff and interested parties how to recognize and appropriately respond to someone experiencing a known or suspected opioid overdose, obtaining free naloxone supply for onsite use through the State Opioid Response (SOR) grant, and becoming an approved SOR grant distributor of free naloxone to community members. To improve outcomes for individuals at risk for experiencing a fatal opioid overdose, IA-NEXT also collaborates with and trains health care professionals at the community level, supporting increased naloxone dispensing and awareness locally.

• Funder: Office of the Attorney General of Iowa
• PI: Alison Lynch, MD, MS
• Grant Period: 9/1/2021 - 9/1/2026
• Total Amount: $3,538,159

This collaboration with the Attorney General of Iowa seeks to expand access to treatment for opioid use disorder by expanding outreach and education efforts to county jails, emergency departments, patients, clinicians, and health care systems across the state.

• Funder: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• PI: Andrea Weber, MD
• Grant Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2025
• Total Amount: $1,124,904

LIVER-SUD-IA is expanding access, utilization, and coordination of integrated telehealth substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and peer recovery support services (PRSS) to rural patients with co-occurring liver disease and SUD. Grant funds from the LIVER-SUD-IA project established Integrated Liver Recovery Services in 2022 to provide substance use and mental health treatment for people with liver diseases caused by alcohol or other substance use. 

• Funder: Iowa Department of Health and Human Services  
• PI: Alison Lynch, MD, MS
• Grant Period: 9/30/2019 - 9/29/2025
• Total Amount: $3,145,721

This program support those with opioid or stimulant use disorders who are re-entering their communities after incarceration, or those on probation or parole. We help navigate and coordinate care, provide consistent peer support, and remove barriers to recovery by providing resources like housing assistance, clothing, and employment support.

• Funder:  Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• PI: Alison Lynch, MD, MS
• Grant Period: 9/30/2022 - 9/29/2027
• Total Amount: $3,750,000

UI ARC Director, Dr. Alison Lynch, received a 5-year grant to expand access to medication treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). RECOVER-IA will increase the capacity to provide medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in Iowa and the number of Iowans with OUD receiving MOUD. 

• Funder: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• PI(s): Andrea Weber, MD, and Ben Miskle, PharmD
• Grant Period: 9/30/24 - 9/29/27
• Total Amount: $900,000

The aim of SUD-TEAMS-IA is to implement an evidence-based substance use disorder (SUD) curriculum in multiple healthcare specialty training programs across the state of Iowa, including pharmacy training programs at the University of Iowa (UI) and Drake, UI’s College of Nursing, and Physician Assistant programs at St. Ambrose and the University of Dubuque. The program intends to train a total of 530 healthcare providers in Iowa, which we hope will increase access to SUD and mental health treatment, especially in rural areas of the state.  

• Funder: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• PI: Alison Lynch, MD, MS
• Grant Period: 9/30/2018 - 9/29/2022
• Total Amount: $1,575,000

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) awarded a three-year grant to Dr. Alison Lynch with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) under the Targeted Capacity Expansion: Medication Assisted Treatment-Prescription Drug and Opioid Addiction (MAT-PDOA) program. The purpose of the MAT-PDOA program was to expand and enhance access to medication for addiction treatment (MAT) services for persons with an opioid use disorder (OUD) seeking or receiving MAT. 133 patients were served by the grant. In addition, the grant supported 18 DATA 2000 Waiver Trainings, attended by 215 clinicians. 

• Funder: Iowa Department of Health and Human Services
• PI: Abbey Hardy - Fairbanks, MD
• Grant Period:  12/01/2019 - 09/29/2025
• Total Amount: $1,087,902

This project with Iowa HHS has instituted standardized screening for substance use in the UIHC obstetrics clinics and started a clinic to support and treat pregnant people with substance use disorder.

• Funder: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• PI: Andrea Weber, MD
• Grant Period: 9/30/21 - 9/29/24
• Total Amount: $900,000

Dr. Andrea Weber received a three-year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to ensure that addiction medicine is a fundamental part of the medical curriculum for all students enrolled in the UI Carver College of Medicine's degree programs for doctors and physician assistants. As a result of this grant, the College of Medicine has expanded its curriculum. All MD/PA students now spend a half-day in the Addiction Medicine Clinic at UIHC or in Des Moines as part of their psychiatry clerkship requirements and do a clerkship in emergency medicine. 

“Every student now spends at least a half a day in the Medication for Addiction Treatment (MAT) clinic. They get to see how buprenorphine is utilized in clinic and see people in various stages of recovery. Instead of seeing people only using substances chaotically, they also get to see people in remission and doing great.” Dr. Andrea Weber, 11/2021