Strategic planning for addiction programs within academic medical centers: Examples from the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine

Background Addiction programs at academic medical centers must navigate complex, multidisciplinary environments as they work to advance the field and improve substance use treatment access and outcomes. Programs can employ strategic planning processes to identify goals and strategies for success. Methods: The Yale Program in Addiction Medicine began a series of strategic planning activities in February 2020 with the primary aims of (1) conducting a point-in-time needs assessment for the Program and (2) identifying goals for Program improvement and expansion. Drawing upon a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis framework and the Delphi method for group decision-making, these strategic planning activities were implemented in four steps involving multimodal engagement and iterative feedback amongst Program faculty and selected stakeholders. Results: Primary deliverables included four overarching programmatic goals, associated action items, strategies for success, a proposed implementation timeline, and a revised Mission, Vision, and Values statement for the Program. Conclusion: Methodologic considerations and environmental factors offer insight into the strengths, limitations, and adaptive potential of this approach as well as others described in the literature. Key outputs highlight the benefits and timeliness of strategic planning for addiction programs, as heightened interest and investment in substance use treatment, prevention, and harm reduction paves the way for opportunity and innovation.