Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program
Welcome from Program Director
Welcome to the Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program at Ozark Center!
Deciding what you would like to specialize in is just as important as deciding where you would like to receive your training from. When contemplating which fellowship program best suits you, you may consider the benefits of having varied clinical experience when rotating through Ozark Center’s many services – all while receiving guidance from our supportive faculty.
During your time here, you will be able to grow your knowledge base while working with a collaborative team to provide care to patients of varied socioeconomic backgrounds in a rural healthcare setting in Joplin, Missouri. Joplin is located near Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas, so our patient population may commute from any of these locations.
CONTRIBUTE TO THE WELLBEING OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
Ozark Center fellows become sensitive to the multifaceted needs of our patient population’s mental health, physical health and social concerns. Fellows here begin to understand the role that a particular setting can have in mental health. (For example, the devastating 2011 Joplin tornado created traumatic experiences for some of our patients.)
YOUR WELLBEING
To promote wellness to our fellows, we have incorporated an innovative wellness program to help fellows with their own mental wellbeing. This idea stemmed from research conducted at our residency program. Another research project within our residency program considered the impact of a patient’s suicide on the residents and how to provide effective support to the residents.
OPPORTUNITY TO TRAIN IN MULTIPLE SETTINGS
- At New Directions, patients with substance use disorders, including opioid dependency, can receive counseling services and medication-assisted treatment to help them manage their symptoms for a well-balanced approach.
- At Freeman Pain Management Clinic, fellows learn how to manage patients with comorbid pain and substance use disorders.
- In Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry Service, fellows will manage patients with co-morbid substance use and medical issues, while providing consult on OB/GYN, surgery, medical, and ICU floors.
- In Dual Diagnosis Units, fellows will work on the inpatient psychiatry units and see dual-diagnosis patients to gain skills and knowledge in caring for this population.
These clinical experiences help stimulate areas of research.
OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN AT EVERY STAGE OF TRAINING
Fellows participate in book club, journal club and contribute to a research project. During protected didactic sessions, they may learn about the latest advances in psychopharmacology or the typical structure of a psychiatric interview. If there is a wellness session, they may participate in yoga or mindfulness exercises.
We are eager to help our fellows obtain their personal career goals, whether that means gaining an academic position or being a well-rounded physician. We are honored that accomplished physicians, such as yourself, have expressed interest in our fellowship program. By choosing us, you will gain experience treating complex patients and provide continuity of care in both inpatient and outpatient settings. I hope that over the course of your experience getting to know us, you come away as excited as I am about our program.
Nauman Ashraf, MD
Psychiatry Residency Program Director
Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program Director
Salary and Benefits
- Salary of $60,745
- Housing stipend of $5,000
- Health, vision and dental benefits
- Educational and book stipend
- CME allowance
- Paid professional membership fees, including college fees, Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physician and Surgeons fees and training licensure fees
- Paid time off
- Malpractice insurance and comprehensive liability insurance
Mission Statement
Provide a safe, progressive and innovative learning environment in order to produce excellent psychiatrists who practice professional and compassionate care to every patient.
Program Aims
- Train and educate psychiatrists who will be prepared to provide excellent care in rural areas.
- Produce professional, independent practitioners who will be competent psychiatrists in the community.
- Educate psychiatrists who are prepared to contribute to the field of medicine through scholarly endeavors.
How to Apply
- Applications only accepted through Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS)
- On-site rotations encouraged but not required
- KCU-GME Consortium/Ozark Center Program number is 4042840002
- Please indicate Addiction Medicine Fellowship on ERAS application
QUALIFICATIONS FOR PROGRAM
Those eligible to be accepted into the training program must have graduated from an ACGME-accredited residency program of anesthesiology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics & gynecology, pediatrics, preventive medicine or psychiatry.
The number of interviews we will hold for the positions depends on how many spots we must fill that year. An average of two fellows are accepted into the program each year.
Currently our program is only able to accept those who have US citizenship or have a green card for the United States.
Nauman Ashraf, MD
Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program Director
Dr. Ashraf is the program director for Ozark Center Psychiatry Residency program and Addiction Medicine Fellowship; he also serves as an adjunct clinical associate professor at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. He is board-certified in general psychiatry, addiction medicine as well as addiction psychiatry. He graduated from Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences in Pakistan. He completed his general psychiatry residency and a fellowship in addiction psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine.
Dr. Ashraf has worked at Ozark Center since 2013 treating patients with mental illness and co-morbid substance use disorders. He started his role as Ozark Center Medical Director of Addiction Services in 2017 and established the buprenorphine outpatient clinic at Ozark Center that same year. He has served as a medical director in the past at the methadone program at Behavioral Health Group in Joplin.
Dr. Ashraf serves on numerous hospital and KCU-GME consortium committees including Chair for the “Learning and Work Environment Committee.” He also serves as a consultant psychiatrist for Opioid STR, a stated targeted response for opioid epidemic.
Additionally, Dr. Ashraf co-authored the chapter on alcohol in Pocket Guide to Addiction Assessment and Treatment, published by American Psychiatry Association Publishing. He has published peer-reviewed articles, presented posters in conferences, provided media talks and participated in invited-speaker talks on substance use disorder and resident wellbeing.
Jeffrey Bradley, MD
Dr. Bradley is board-certified in general psychiatry and in child and adolescent psychiatry. Along with being a published poet, he has also published original research and essays. A recipient of the Lamberti Award for Excellence in Psychotherapy, he was a 2015 “Top Doctor” in psychiatry 417 Magazine. He has extensive training and unique passion in the area of integrative medicine and yoga.
Allison Smith, MD
Dr. Smith is board-certified in general psychiatry as well as in addiction medicine. Dr. Smith graduated from Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine and subsequently completed her psychiatric residency at Ozark Center/Freeman Heath System.
Dr. Smith currently serves as the site director of one of Ozark Center’s two adult inpatient psychiatric units. She primarily works with residents in the adult inpatient setting, but she also spends time in Ozark Center’s outpatient substance use treatment center, New Directions, where she works with residents during their addiction rotation.
Tabassum Saba, MD, MS
Dr. Saba is board-certified in general adult psychiatry. She has been serving Joplin and the surrounding area since 2002, after completing her residency training at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri.
Dr. Saba graduated from Allama Iqbal Medical College, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. She finished her Master of Science in Microbiology and Immunology at New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York, where she helped set up an HIV lab. She moved to Joplin in 1996, along with her children, parents and husband, who also serves the area as a physician. Dr. Saba and her husband raised their two children in Joplin and are very invested in the welfare of the area.
Dr. Saba has served in various positions as attending psychiatrist. She has worked at Clark Community Mental Health Center (Monett, Missouri). For years she was one of the few psychiatrists providing services to this under-served rural area. She has played a key role in Joplin area during the opioid epidemic by being a medical director at Behavioral Health Group, a clinic for medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. She has also served as medical director of Ozark Center New Directions, Joplin – a treatment center for substance use disorder.
As a general psychiatrist, Dr. Saba likes to work in different settings and has served as medical director of Senior Serenity, a geriatric psychiatric unit. She believes that patients are our best teachers and has a patient-based teaching approach when it comes to training residents and medical students.
Rebecca Sanders, MD
Dr. Sanders is a pain management specialist in Joplin, Missouri. She graduated with honors in 2011 from the University of Arkansas College of Medicine. She then went on to complete her fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in the area of interventional pain management. Having more than 11 years of diverse experiences, Dr. Sanders affiliates with Freeman Health System and works with many other doctors and specialists to provide excellent care to patients in the area.
Dr. Yassar Odhejo
Dr. Savitha Kumari Satyasi
Curriculum, Conference and Didactics
Download Curriculum Information
Ozark Center fellows meet to take part in didactics from 12:30 pm – 5:00 pm each Tuesday. Fellows can take part in:
- Grand rounds
- Journal club
- Business meetings
- Board review
- Lectures on psychopharmacology, behavioral psychology and psychodynamic psychiatry
- Case conferences
- Morbidity and mortality conferences
Research Experience and Accomplishments
Ozark Center recently joined a research consortium including Missouri Southern State University and Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. This consortium includes a central wet lab where a variety of commonly used bench technologies serve investigators throughout all three organizations.
Ozark Center has also recently partnered with Evolution Research Group, the premier central nervous system clinical trials management organization in the United States, allowing our organization to participate in sixteen distinct clinical trials.
Additionally, multiple attendings have active original research projects currently underway, and each resident completes a research project before graduation. Many of those projects have become publications or posters. Research interests of our faculty include:
- In situ holistic wellness programs
- Medication-assisted therapies for opioid dependence
- Delirium and encephalitis
- Resident education
Ozark Center staff have developed and copyrighted two scales, one of which is already being utilized by other researchers. Ozark Center is also developing a research program resembling that of any land grant university in the country.
Research Accomplishments
Faculty
- Naloxone Prescribing Upon Discharge from Freeman Health System for Patients with Opioid Use Disorder: Slauter M, Ashraf N, Goade S, Carey A, Udell J.
- HHEB Project (Housing, Health and Employment Improvements with Buprenorphine): Nauman Ashraf, MD; Raquel N Reno, BSW; Lisa M. Watson, CPS, CRPR; and Allison Smith, DO.
- Impact on Residents from Teaching Medical Ethics: Cindy Schmidt, PhD; Nauman Ashraf, MD; and Kristine Stevens, EdD.
Residents
- Impact of Covid 19 Pandemic on Mental Well-Being of Psychiatry Residents at Ozark Center: Raj, Nadia, Shaikh B, Ashraf, N.
- Qualitative Analysis of Feedback Received from Patients as a Result of a New Scheduling Method: Singh,B, Ashraf, N., Mir, F.
- Tricyclic Antidepressant Induced Anticholinergic Delirium in a Young Healthy Male: King, M., Ashraf, N.
- Impact of Patient Suicide on Psychiatry Residents: Suggestions for Education and Intervention: Cirulli, M., Ashraf, N., Bradley, JS.
- Survey of the Barriers to Buprenorphine/Naloxone Prescribing in Our Emergency Department: Jordan Stanton, DO; Nauman Ashraf, MD; and Ben Cesarz, DO.
- Just-In-Time: The Effect of Just-In-Time Scheduling on No-Show Rates: Barinder Singh, DO; Nauman Ashraf, MD; Megan McMurray, DO; Cindy Schmidt, PhD; Jordan Stanton, DO; Lisset Diaz, DO; and Hetvi Desai, DO.
- A Quality Improvement Project of Patients’ Attitudes Toward a New Scheduling Method in the Outpatient Setting: Barinder Singh, DO; Nauman Ashraf, MD; Megan McMurray, DO; Cindy Schmidt, PhD; Jordan Stanton, DO; Lisset Diaz, DO; and Hetvi Desai, DO
Diversity Statement
Ozark Center Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program is committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse and inclusive workforce of fellows, faculty and staff, as well as creating an environment that fosters inclusiveness, mutual respect and appreciation of multiple perspectives. This is achieved through professional development, education, evaluation and practice.
As physicians in training, fellows must understand and embrace cultural diversity in order to be competent and successful in team-based healthcare delivery. In this context, we are mindful of all aspects of human differences, such as socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, spiritual practice, geography, disability, career goals and age.
We feel it is critical that our trainees reflect the diversity of the patients we serve at Ozark Center, the residents of the city of Joplin and the US population as a whole. This is achieved by nurturing the climate and culture of the program through professional development, education, policy and practice. Our objective is to create a climate that fosters belonging, respect and value for all and encourages engagement and connection throughout the institution.
Moreover, we believe that the constantly changing demographics locally and nationally make it imperative that the program creates a workforce for the future that is capable of understanding, communicating and providing care for individuals from the most varied backgrounds. In this way, diversity enhances creativity and thoughtfulness in our patient care and research and serves as a catalyst for change, ultimately resulting in greater healthcare equity and a reduction in healthcare disparities. This eventually leads to better solutions to the healthcare needs of the populations we serve.
We are extremely proud of all aspects of diversity represented by our current trainees, faculty and staff, and we are committed to both increasing that diversity in the years to come and ensuring the success of our trainees who come from backgrounds currently underrepresented.
Dustin Harrington, BS 
Dustin has worked at Ozark Center for more than a decade. He joined our team in 2013 as a community support specialist for youth services, where he provided services at both the rehabilitation and intensive care levels. Dustin also worked with area schools and organizations to best serve clients goals that would lead them to being successful. Since 2018, Dustin has provided ongoing support to Ozark Center’s Psychiatry Residency by assisting in its expansion, continued accreditation and continued funding through the grant process. In 2023, Dustin helped further the program’s growth with the addition of the Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program, for which he also provides support for its ongoing accreditation.
Contact Information
Program phone number: 417.347.7603
Program director email: nashraf@freemanhealth.com
Program coordinator email: deharrington@freemanhealth.com
Ozark Center Psychiatric Residency Program functions under the Kansas City University-Graduate Medical Education (KCU-GME) Consortium. Their phone number is 816.654.7000.
