Addiction Medicine

Welcome to the Primary Care Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program at Kern Medical

We are pleased to welcome you to the Kern Medical Fellowship in Primary Care Addiction Medicine. This program is primarily based at Kern Medical, which is an acute care teaching hospital located in Bakersfield, California. The hospital offers support for six fully accredited residency training programs, including Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Psychiatry, and Pharmacy, General Surgery, as well as four fellowships. The Primary Care Addiction Medicine Fellowship has been designed to provide each graduate with the necessary knowledge and experience to confidently evaluate and manage the broad range of challenges this subspecialty encompasses.

Kern Medical’s Primary Care Addiction Medicine Fellowship goal is to train physicians to be able to evaluate, manage and treat patients struggling with addiction. The fellow functions in a variety of settings: inpatient consult service, outpatient MAT clinic, correctional medicine setting, shelter medicine, and street medicine. The training is full spectrum, including substance, alcohol and behavioral addictions that span all age groups. Our faculty-to-Fellow ratio fosters solid mentoring in an atmosphere of camaraderie and teamwork.

During this fellowship, you will be rotating through various locations such as Kern Medical, Aegis Treatment Centers, Kern Behavioral Health & Recovery Services, our shelter medicine sites at CAPK M Street Navigation Center and Brundage Lane Navigation Center, and Kern County Detention facilities.

Primary Care Addiction Medicine core faculty physicians are all experienced clinician-educators with teaching experience, academic publications, research studies, and participation in professional organizations. All are board certified in Addiction Medicine and hold academic appointments at the David Geffen School of Medicine. As a Fellow in our program, you will actively participate in scholarly activities such as clinical or observational research that will be presented at local, regional, or even international meetings. The unique combination of training sites with both clinical and scholarly activities provides you the opportunity to be an integral member of our Addiction Medicine team while gaining exposure to the full spectrum of experiences.