Our work is to increase and improve education for all physicians about all aspects of addiction, highlighting the clinical continuum of diagnosis, treatment and recovery for the patient and family members. We do that by involving selected residents in addiction medicine conferences, learning side by side with specialists in practice of addiction medicine, in mentored activities.

To increase the opportunities for residents and their faculty to learn about the diagnosis and treatment of alcoholism and other drug dependencies, MERF offers scholarships annually to these four-day conferences on addiction medicine. Scholarships are offered to both physicians in training and teaching faculty in residency training programs.

Activities for residents such as case discussions, brief meetings with faculty members, with an emphasis on effective, high quality medical education are scheduled during each conference. Scholarship recipients sit together remotely during the conference and participate in activities designed for them.

Interested residents, program directors, and all faculty members who teach and supervise residents in your program are invited to apply for the MERF Scholars program to participate in the 4-day Mentored Learning Experience with quarterly Journal Clubs and meetings throughout the year leading to completion of scholarly projects. 

Due to minimal external/grant support in 2023, we are limited in how many scholarships that MERF will be able to fund internally.  Priority will be given to those MERF Scholar-applicants who have full or partial funding through their institution or program. Should you be selected as Scholar, the benefits will include reduced rate registration for the CSAM Conference, as well as the half-day preconference workshop – “Motivational Interviewing for the Busy Clinician” and other MERF activities during the conference. Travel and lodging costs may be covered, however, this will be determined once we have our full slate of MERF Scholars selected.

**Each team member must submit an application and upload a letter from the Program Director.

Scholarship recipients are expected to be present throughout the conference (August 30 – September 2, 2023) and participate fully from its beginning until the close of the conference.

Follow up Journal Club meetings/conference calls and scholarly projects help residents and faculty meet the ACGME requirements for scholarly activity.

The Motivational Interviewing Workshop has been opened to non-MERF participants.

The deadline to apply was May 24, 2023! Thank you to everyone who applied.
The MERF Board of Directors will review submissions and follow-up with all applicants.