As of January 2023, the X-waiver is no longer required to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder. Any references to the X-waiver no longer apply. The educational content on this site that offers CME meets the MATE Act requirements of 8 hours of training required for DEA certification.
The OASIS-TTA consultants are health care professionals who are champions across the state of California working to improve treatment for patients struggling with opioid use disorder (OUD) by expanding the availability of medications for addiction treatment (MAT). Consultants offer specific experience working in a variety of settings that provide MAT and other addiction treatment. Through training and technical assistance activities, including mentorship for X-waivered prescribers and MAT team members, they offer support to those providing effective treatments for OUD.
Dr. Ho is one of the physician co-founders of the Valley Homeless Healthcare Program (VHHP) in San Jose, an organization that is part of Santa Clara County's Health and Hospital System. Board certified in both Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine, Dr. Ho provides primary care in a FQHC context for individuals experiencing homelessness in Santa Clara County. In 2010, she started the organization's first medication-assisted treatment (MAT) clinic at VHHP in 2010 for homeless individuals with an opiate use disorder. This clinic quickly became one of the highest volume primary care clinics that provide buprenorphine in the state of California for the Medi-Cal population. Her team is well known for its health care innovations, including the use of a multi-disciplinary shared medical appointment that combines medical treatment (MAT), behavioral health treatment, and social work assistance in a group visit with 10-15 other patients.
Dr. Ho also serves as a technical assistance consultant with the Janus of Santa Cruz through the California Hub and Spoke Initiative. She is also part of a research group that is starting a national multi-center clinical focused on combining a Housing First model with a clinical shared medical appointment model for MAT in homeless individuals with opiate use disorder.
Grace Katie Bell, MSN, RN-BC, CARN, PHN is a trauma-informed MAT/SUD consultant with Center for Care Innovation: Addiction Treatment Starts Here and UCLA ISAP offering technical assistance, mentoring, and training for FQHCs and Tribal and Urban Indian Health Centers throughout California. Katie is a regular panelist on the PCSS Exchange series. Board-certified as Addictions RN for 20 years, Katie has been working with buprenorphine/naloxone since 2001 while at the Hazelden-Betty Ford Center. Katie has also joined the UNM Clinical Trial collaborative advisory board and implementation for Opioid and Pain Treatment in Indigenous Community (OPTIC).
Kawika Liu, M.D., Ph.D., JD is an internist/pediatrician/addiction medicine specialist, currently Physician Advisor at John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital. Previously, he has been a medical director and provider at a rural health center, tribal health center, and FHQCs. Kawika received his MD from St George's University School of Medicine, his PhD and JD from University of Hawai'i, Manoa. Dr Liu has published in lung cancer and other health inequities in Native Hawaiians. His interests are population health, human rights-based approaches to health, particularly indigenous health, causation in public health, cancer, obesity, and asthma. He is the father of two daughters.
Richard A. Rawson, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus at the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and a Research Professor at the Vermont Center for Behavior and Health at the University of Vermont. He received a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Vermont in 1974. Dr. Rawson conducted numerous clinical trials on pharmacological and psychosocial addiction treatments and extensive system evaluation activities in a number of states and countries. He has led addiction research and training projects for the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the Drosos Foundation and the U.S. State Department, exporting science-based knowledge to many parts of the world. Dr. Rawson has published 3 books, 40 book chapters, and over 250 peer-reviewed articles and has conducted over 1,000 workshops, paper presentations, and training sessions.
Dr. Stockton is Board Certified in both Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine. She is the Public Health Officer for Humboldt County. She is the clinical champion for the Humboldt RISE Project (a county-wide Perinatal Substance Use Disorder project) and Humboldt County’s Jail MAT program. She has worked in primary care in rural Northern California since 2006 and sees every day how the disease of addiction affects her individuals and families in her community. Dr. Stockton is active in community outreach, serving with various groups that address addiction and family issues. She has worked with law enforcement and treatment programs to increase access to Narcan in communities. She is an active speaker working to help educate community members about addiction and addiction treatment. She is a consultant for the Hub and Spoke project in Northern California and for California’s Opioid Response Network.
Dr. Veronica Velasquez grew up in a small rural agricultural community of Greenfield, CA. After graduating from King City High School, she attended UC Santa Barbara becoming the first college graduate in her family. Dr. Velasquez subsequently matriculated into the UCLA School of Medicine, where she was a recipient of the prestigious Dean Merit Scholarship for outstanding community service. After receiving her medical degree in 2001, she completed a Family and Community Medicine residency at UCSF-San Francisco General Hospital in 2004 where her training emphasis was caring, advocating, and allocating services to underserved communities. She then transitioned to caring for the medically indigent at Sacramento County.
Now for the past 11 years, as a primary care physician and Medical Director of El Dorado Community Health Centers, Dr. Velasquez has worked in the front lines alongside her colleagues and support staff to provide care to everyone regardless of insurance or documentation status. In response to the opioid epidemic in her local community, she led the effort in the implementation of an interdisciplinary team-based Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) program in 2016 that includes both opioid addiction treatment and safe prescribing for chronic pain. The program has expanded to treatment of other substance use disorders. She will continue to advocate for equity in the care of the most vulnerable and marginalized in our communities.