Congratulations to member Andrew Kestler for receiving the Interdisciplinary Clinical Excellence Award at the 2021 BC Substance Use Conference.

Each year, The BC Centre on Substance Use recognizes members of their community who contribute significantly to substance use strategies in BC.

The Interdisciplinary Clinical Excellence Award is given to a clinician who demonstrates exemplary leadership in implementing evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and treatment pathways. The recipient champions education to improve knowledge of substance use and addiction and share this knowledge widely. Winners strengthen local, regional and provincial addiction and substance use activities across disciplines, academic institutions and health authorities.

Andrew truly exemplifies these criteria through his research and many initiatives to improve outcomes for substance use patients. He is the lead for a study of a novel program combining buprenorphine/naloxone packs and intensive community follow-up for ED patients who use opioids. This low-barrier treatment aims to start more people on opioid agonist therapy and prevent overdose deaths.

Andrew is an emergency physician and Physician Lead of the ED Opioid Crisis Response at St. Paul’s Hospital, the Interim Regional Lead for ED Addiction Interventions and a Clinical Associate Professor at the UBC Department of Emergency Medicine. He is the co-lead of the EM Network ED Response to the Opioid Overdose Crisis research initiative.

View Resources Authored by Andrew Kestler:

• Opioid Overdoses – Management
• Buprenorphine/Naloxone Initiation for ED Patients Who Use Opioids
• Language Matters (blog post)