A model for answering the substance abuse educational needs of health professionals: the North Carolina Governor's Institute on Alcohol and Substance Abuse.

Physicians can play an increased role in recognizing, intervening, and moderating their patients' misuse of alcohol and other drugs. This article explores the need for educational changes to permit physicians to develop skills in prevention, screening, and office-based treatment. It includes a personal account by one of the authors of his experience in recognizing deficiencies in substance abuse education both in his own medical school training and in today's health science curricula in the United States. It reviews prior initiatives by NIAAA/NIDA to address curriculum needs and describes an innovative collaborative model in North Carolina called the Governor's Institute on Alcohol and Substance Abuse. The Institute was created in 1990 as a nonprofit corporation to promote education, research, and communication among health professionals. Some of the Institute's programs are described, including its curriculum integration project in the state's four medical schools. The article concludes that the time is right to introduce substance abuse concepts into basic and continuing education for all health professionals.