Four new "Centers of Excellence for Physician Information" established by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) are designed to support addiction awareness, prevention and treatment in primary-care practices.

Target audiences for the centers include medical students and primary-care residents, including internists, family physicians, and pediatricians. "These new Centers of Excellence are just one step in a broad cooperative effort to increase awareness among primary care physicians and other health professionals, as well as patients, about drug addiction as a major public-health issue," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni.

The American Medical Association's (AMA) Research Education Consortium helped develop the centers. The four centers will open this year at Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Neb.; the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (in collaboration with Drexel University College of Medicine); the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences; and the Massachusetts Consortium of Medical Schools (which includes the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, and Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance). More centers are planned for the future, as well.

"This AMA-NIDA collaboration is part of NIDA's ongoing activities to provide physicians and other medical professionals with the tools and skills needed to incorporate NIDA-funded research findings into their clinical practice," said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow.