Dr. Aaron Newcomb is the current president of ISAM. He is a graduate of A.T. Still University and is dual board-certified in Family and Addiction Medicine. Since 2008, Dr. Newcomb has been working at Shawnee Health Services, a rural Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Carbondale, Illinois. He currently serves as the Medical Director for the organization’s Substance Use Disorder Treatment program.

 

Dr. Newcomb was an early pioneer in the use of buprenorphine and has treated many hundreds of patients for opioid use disorder since 2011. Many of these patients have received continuous buprenorphine treatment under his direct care for over five to ten years. In addition to patient care, Dr. Newcomb has served as a volunteer faculty member at SIU School of Medicine and A.T. Still University and has presented extensively on addiction, the opioid epidemic, and buprenorphine treatment at medical and community venues on local, regional, and national levels.

 

Much of Dr. Newcomb’s passion for medicine is centered on the treatment of addiction. He considers himself a fierce advocate against the bias and stigma attached to this disease. A major theme in this struggle has been securing access to treatment with buprenorphine or other misunderstood controlled substance medications for his patients. His professional activism has expanded over the past few years to address system-level problems, often driven by stigma and its harmful consequences. Much of this work has been accomplished in collaboration with ISAM. Dr. Newcomb is convinced that he must continue to work for a culture change on addiction and its treatment to help others access needed care and the freedom of recovery.

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