My lecture at the 40th Anniversary of SÁÁ described how physician health programs (PHPs) are treating addiction as a chronic illness. PHPs are ahead of the curve here. We obtain excellent 5-year outcomes by ensuring that all of our participants obtain intensive treatment and long term disease management. A small portion of our success does come from the population we serve, but after reviewing our cases we have concluded that this is not the majority effect. Physicians become very ill with addiction illnesses, just like the general population. The physician treatment model is more effective due to intensive disease monitoring for five years or more. 

My lecture covers current practices and our hopes to improve outcomes even further through the use of big data and an increased focus on contingency management.