November 25, 2020, Public Forum with Valsa Madhava, M.D.
Dr. Madhava has had a diverse medical background over her decades-long career. In the United States, she has worked with the Indian Health Service in Alaska, with migrant farmworkers in North Carolina, and patients with HIV/AIDS in New York.
Dr. Madhava’s involvement with patients with addictions began during her medical residency in North Carolina. In her spare time, she worked in the local prison, where she encountered many patients who were in prison for substance-use related crimes. As a general internist, she has since worked with populations that struggle with substance-use in many different settings. For several years, she worked at the Rikers Island jails, where she treated opioid use disorder with methadone and buprenorphine, and managed medically-supervised withdrawals. She has also worked in several different opioid treatment programs where methadone was the primary treatment modality, and in-clinic settings where Buprenorphine/Naloxone was prescribed to eligible patients with opioid use disorders.