After 18 years developing education program at Rushford, part of the Hartford HealthCare Behavioral Health Network (BHN), Samuel Silverman, MD, will retire on July 5, 2019.

Dr. Silverman, director of medical education, will step down from his duties as program director of Rushford’s Addiction Medicine Fellowship. Known to many as Connecticut’s “father of buprenorphine,” he combined medication management with an innovative group model for the treatment of opioid use disorders.

After completing his psychiatric residency at the Institute of Living (IOL), Dr. Silverman went into private practice and then joined Rushford 18 years ago. In his work within the BHN, he developed an addiction medicine rotation for the IOL’s psychiatry residency training program. His continuous involvement with the IOL includes leading numerous case conferences, educational seminars and sitting on the Executive Committee.

“Sam Silverman has been a steady and staunch advocate for the needs of those struggling with addiction and has helped educate and guide many clinicians through his years with the IOL and at the helm of our addiction medicine fellowship,” said J. Craig Allen, MD, Rushford’s medical director and vice president of addiction services with the Behavioral Health Network. “His foresight and support has been invaluable, impacting the way we treat people with addictions now and into the future. We will miss him greatly, but his inspirational leadership and mentoring will always be with us.”

Dr. Silverman, always on the cutting edge clinically and educationally, will remain in a per diem capacity providing clinical, educational and supervisory support for students, residents, fellows and faculty via telehealth from his retirement home in Florida.

Dr. Silverman is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in general psychiatry and addiction psychiatry, and is certified in addiction medicine by the American Board of Addiction Medicine. He has been active in the state and nationally in substance use prevention, treatment and educational fields. He carries the DFASM distinction with the American Society of Addiction Medicine and is the state chapter’s immediate past president.

For more information on treatment of addictions at the Behavioral Health Network, go to www.hhcbehavioralhealth.org.