Even as the recruitment season for the 2022 academic year continues, Addiction Medicine fellowships are beginning to look toward the next application cycle. Two closely related themes top the agenda: getting the word out to potential candidates and improving the process for applicants and fellowships alike.

At the latest ACAAM Virtual Town Hall on November 18, program directors, faculty, and coordinators gathered to begin discussing next steps. The meeting came exactly one month after the offer period for 2022 positions opened for most fellowships participating in the Common Decision Date. The Common Date plan provided a 3-month window of “protected time” so applicants could fully explore their options and programs could complete interviews before offers started.

The MAHEC Addiction Medicine Fellowship is relatively new, but it’s already having an impact in rural North Carolina and beyond, according to a story on ABC-affiliate WLOS in Asheville (https://wlos.com/news/local/addiction-medicine-fellowship-program-aims-to-improve-access-to-care-in-rural-western-nc). The story features current fellow and family physician Kendrick White, MD. The MAHEC fellowship and many others are still taking applications for July 2022 fellowship positions – Read More.

With the offer period for 2022-23 fellowship positions now open, a number of fellowships are expected to continue taking applications on a rolling basis until they have filled. We will post a Recruitment Directory indicating which programs these are as soon as we receive updates from the fellowships later this week.

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72 Participating Fellowships will Begin Making Offers for 2022-23 Positions on October 18

In a move to bring greater consistency and transparency to the fellowship application process, the majority of Addiction Medicine programs have agreed to participate in a “common decision date” for the current recruitment cycle. Under the agreement, the participating fellowships (85% of ACGME-accredited Addiction Medicine programs) will begin making offers for 2022-23 positions on October 18.

The “common decision date” agreement is designed to give candidates and participating fellowships alike a reasonable period of time to conduct interviews and assess options. Fellowships had traditionally started making offers on individual timelines, but that uncoordinated arrangement had become stressed as the number of programs and candidates grew.