The Impact of the Yale Faculty Development Program: Clinical Alcohol and Drug Research and Education (CADRE) on Medical Student Teaching about Substance Abuse 1

Increasing emphasis on the need for medical student education about substance abuse has led to the development of a variety of training efforts through faculty development. The Yale University School of Medicine Faculty Development Program or CADRE (Clinical Alcohol and Drug Research and Education) was instituted in 1992 for the purpose of enhancing substance abuse teaching in the Yale medical student curriculum. CADRE faculty were identify in internal medicine, pediatrics, and psychiatry. Prior to the program, there was limited formal teaching about substance abuse in the Yale curriculum and no coordinated effort across disciplines. The enhancement of teaching activities occurred primarily within four required “core”; clinical clerkships for third‐and fourth‐year medical students. Student evaluations of this new teaching activity were positive. The CADRE program was successful at developing a multidisciplinary core faculty group with expertise in substance abuse teaching and resulted in the development of a coordinated, multidisciplinary substance abuse curriculum for Yale medical students.