Dr. Aaron Newcomb holds primary board certification for Family Medicine through the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). He has also held continuous Addiction Medicine certification since 2010, initially through the American Board of Addiction Medicine, and is currently subspecialty board certified through the American Board of Preventative Medicine for Addiction Medicine (ABPM).

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His medical degree comes from A.T. Still University medical school in Kirksville, MO.  Since graduating SIU Family Medicine Residency program in 2008, he has worked solely with Shawnee Health Services a local community Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Carbondale. 

Dr. Newcomb pioneered the development of an office-based opioid treatment program in 2011 and has been treating patients continuously since that time with buprenorphine for medication-assisted recovery. He has treated at or near Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 (DATA 2000) waiver limits throughout the past decade, culminating with just under two hundred and seventy-five (275) active patients since 2018. Some of these patients have over ten (10) years of stable buprenorphine treatment directly under his care. Dr. Newcomb currently serves as the Medical Director for the Substance Use Prevention and Recovery (SUPR) licensed treatment program at Shawnee Health Services. 

Dr. Newcomb is an advocate for addiction treatment and has provided hands-on training for medical students as a volunteer faculty member of SIU Medical School and A.T. Still University.  He currently serves as the Chairperson for the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians (IAFP), Opioid Safety Workgroup. Dr. Newcomb has provided numerous presentations on addiction, the opioid epidemic, and medication-assisted treatment at various medical and community venues in the Southern Illinois region and beyond since 2011.

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Much of Dr. Newcomb’s passion for medicine is centered on the treatment of addiction. He considers himself a fierce advocate against the implicit bias and stigma attached to this disease.  A major theme in this struggle has been securing access to treatment with buprenorphine for many of his patients.  His advocacy has taken many forms for individual cases but 2020 expanded his scope of professional activism as he took on Walmart Corporation and successfully reversed a ban placed on his controlled substance prescribing. 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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