​An academic team from the University of Jordan's (UJ) School of Pharmacy, in partnership with researchers from the Global Addiction Network of the Yale Institute for Global Health, have won a two-year grant from the U.S. Department of State, via the US Embassy in Amman, to implement a capacity building project that includes the establishment of a joint training program on addiction between Yale Schools of Medicine and Public Health and the School of Pharmacy. 

The importance of the project, which has a budget of around 100 thousand USD, stems from the fact that there is a treatment gap in substance use disorder in the Middle East, including Jordan, North African region as well as the United States due to social and cultural stigma, lack of addiction-specific training for healthcare providers, and limited resources. 

The proposed program aims at sharing expertise and providing the opportunity of exchange between academic institutions, for both faculty and students, on the identification and treatment of substance use disorder while paying specific attention to cultural competency. 

The main researchers of the project are Dr. Jeanette Tetrault from the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine and Section of General Internal Medicine and Dr. Mayyada Al-Wazaify from the Department of Biopharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmacy at School of Pharmacy.  

The UJ team of researchers includes Dean of the School of Pharmacy, Dr. Rana Abu-Dahab and Yara Al-Khateeb, BSc (School of Pharmacy). Other team members from the U.S. include Dr. Kaveh Khoshnood (Program in Addiction Medicine, Yale School of Public Health), Dr. Ryan McNeil (Program in Addiction Medicine, Section of General Internal Medicine, Yale Schools of Medicine and Public Health), Dr. Srinivas Muvvala (Program in Addiction Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine), as well as Dr. Rebecca Minahan-Rowley, LMSW (Program in Addiction Medicine). 

Another larger scale US, Jordanian academic cooperation took place at UJ as well. On Tuesday, December 14th, an academic delegation from the University of Connecticut concluded a three-day visit to the University as part of a joint project to develop Biorisk Management (BRM) curricula in health schools, coordinated by the University's Cell Therapy Center. 

The delegation, comprised of University of Connecticut professors, in addition to Shakir Jawad, the principal advisor to the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), met with UJ President, Professor Nathir Obeidat, his deputies, and deans of schools of medicine, science, pharmacy and nursing, and gave briefing on the project's milestones, objectives and expected outcomes. 

During the three-day visit, the delegation also met with faculty members from medical departments participating in the project in schools of medicine, science, pharmacy and nursing, in order to discuss topics included in the study plans of these departments and the progress in setting up the curriculum.

The project comes within the Jordan-US program to Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) through the Biological Threat Reduction Program implemented by the DRTA in cooperation with the Jordan Armed Forces (JAF) - the Arab Army. ​

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