Davis Bradford, M.D., Assistant Professor, Division of General Internal Medicineby Dr. Natasha Mehra, PGY-3

Originally from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Assistant Professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine David Bradford, M.D., completed his undergraduate schooling at Auburn University before coming to Birmingham for medical school at UAB. During that time he volunteered with Equal Access Birmingham, a student-run free clinic, to care for vulnerable and marginalized communities. “They’re a population I most enjoy serving,” he says. After moving northeast for residency training at Boston University, he worked with different demographics of patients, especially those patients struggling with addiction. During training, he cared for many patients with opiate use disorder and frequently started them on methadone. “I felt very prepared due to a lot of exposure but also because my mentors were generalists who took on addiction care. I saw role models who were doing it every day,” he says. The major difference in his training came from BU Addiction Medicine and Addiction Psychiatry being housed in the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Bradford always envisioned returning to Alabama to serve his home state due to its unique challenges, such as “injustices people face outside of health but also within healthcare.” He describes the story of “a close friend impacted by addiction but was raised with a very different set of cards than me. That’s why it’s very important to me. I see myself as a generalist and a primary care provider for that population. My heart is with them and making sure I improve health equity. Addiction is the avenue I chose to serve.” His decision to return to UAB was two-fold. He has a passion for teaching and wants to be involved with an academic program. Additionally, he met Dr. Leah Leisch, who completed an Addiction Medicine fellowship at Yale University and returned to UAB afterwards. Dr. Bradford describes her as “a great sponsor and a reason I returned here…knowing that UAB was looking to expand addiction care.”

He brought his passion for treating substance use disorder back to UAB with him. He helps internal medicine residents learn about caring for patients with substance use disorders through lectures, precepting in resident primary care clinic, and teaching residents who now rotate on the addiction service. Additionally, Drs. Leisch and Bradford have started an ACGME-accredited Addiction Medicine Fellowship, which is recruiting fellows to learn the nuances and intricacies of substance use disorder treatment. He hopes his efforts will lead to more generalists and specialists treating those with opiate use disorder.