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Lynn Sullivan, M.D.
Associate Professor, Internal Medicine
Yale University School of Medicine
lynn.fiellin@yale.edu
2006-2009 Cohort
Project Title: "Reducing Sex-Related HIV Risk Behaviors in Patients Receiving Treatment for Opioid Dependence"

About the Project:
This project allowed for investigation of a specific behavioral intervention to target sexual risk behaviors in patients engaging in drug treatment for heroin and prescription opioid abuse in a primary care setting. The results of the two surveys conducted (patient and provider) and the randomized clinical trial will allow Dr. Sullivan to refine her expertise in the area of HIV prevention in vulnerable patient populations.

Biosketch:

Lynn Sullivan, M.D. is Associate Professor of Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and a practicing HIV physician and Addiction Medicine provider. She received a bachelor of arts in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in 1984. Following graduation, she spent six years doing clinical research, most of which was done on one of the inpatient research units at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. She received her medical degree from Yale University in 1996 and completed her internship, residency, and Chief Residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital. 

During the two years following her residency, while working as a general internist and HIV physician, she developed her research interest in the area of substance use disorders and their treatments. In 2002 she applied for and was awarded the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Physician Scientist Training Award, which provided her with five years of funding to focus on the area of evaluating strategies to optimize the care and prevention of HIV in substance abusers. In 2004 she obtained certification in Addiction Medicine from the American Society of Addiction Medicine and has developed expertise in the use of buprenorphine, a medication that is approved for use by office-based physicians to treat heroin and prescription opioid abuse. Dr. Sullivan has been involved with many of the national training efforts in the use of buprenorphine and has been prescribing it for the treatment of opioid dependence in both HIV-negative and HIV-positive patients for the past 4 years.

She has maintained a clinical practice in Yale’s HIV clinic providing care for HIV-positive patients for the past 15 years and is the former Chair of the SGIM HIV/AIDS Task Force. She was Co-Principal Investigator at Yale’s demonstration site for one of the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Special Projects of National Significance which over the five-year funding period will examine the integration of buprenorphine treatment into HIV clinical settings. She also served as a clinical expert for the national Evaluation and Support Center overseeing the HRSA national multi-site demonstration projects providing consultation on the design and the implementation of this national initiative and providing guidance to the 10 sites around the country. 

With funding from the Physician Faculty Scholars Program, she investigated a specific behavioral intervention to target sexual risk behaviors in patients engaging in drug treatment for heroin and prescription opioid abuse in a primary care setting. Her project was entitled "Reducing Sex-Related HIV Risk Behaviors in Patients Receiving Treatment for Opioid Dependence". The results of the two surveys she conducted (patient and provider) and the randomized clinical trial will allow her to refine her expertise in the area of HIV prevention in vulnerable patient populations.

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