Program Overview
The Addiction Treatment Forum educational program was developed in the early 1990s to address the concerns of patients and professionals working in the addiction treatment field during the heroin epidemic that faced our nation. The goal of the educational program is to report what has happened, what is happening today, and what might happen in the future to further the success of professionals and patients in providing medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction. Our program is funded by an educational grant from Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals.
Today we have over a million yearly visits to our website (ATForum.com). Our website content includes almost 100 newsletters, currently published bi-monthly; 250 news updates; related resources and website listings; information on where to find substance abuse treatment; patient education brochures; and a listing of key events and conferences related to substance abuse treatment.
Editorial Process
It should be noted that the publisher and the contributing writers are not medical professionals (see background information below).
The publisher is responsible for selecting all content for the news updates, resources, and related websites on ATForum.com. The publisher and contributing writers discuss potential article and interview ideas before starting work on the bi-monthly newsletter. Our editorial goal is to provide a mix of news stories, interviews on key topics of interest to our diverse audience, research summaries that can further the education of our readers in the addiction treatment field, and other resources to help encourage patients in medication-assisted treatment to successfully stay on the road to recovery.
When interviews are conducted and published in our online newsletters, the professionals and or patients we interviewed receive the final article for approval before the newsletter is published online. Articles for our news updates include links to the original articles, the source, and the date they were published online.
When White Papers are written and published, they are footnoted and fully referenced.
Publisher/Contributing Writer Background/Qualifications
Sue Emerson (Publisher)
Sue Emerson is currently the Publisher/Owner of the Addiction Treatment Forum educational program that focuses on medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction. For over the past 20 years, she has served as an account manager on Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and a variety of medical and dental accounts with full service advertising agencies.
She began her career in advertising working in media on a variety of package goods accounts for leading advertising agencies including BBDO and Needham Harper & Steers.
Sue received her Bachelor of Arts degree (Advertising), at Michigan State University.
Alison Knopf (Contributing Writer for Addiction Treatment Forum)
Alison Knopf is currently: Managing Editor, Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter (Publisher: Wiley); Managing Editor, Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology Update (Publisher: Wiley); Contributing Writer, Addiction Professional (Publisher: Vendome); Editor, Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly (Publisher: John Wiley & Sons); and Writer, Addiction Treatment Forum (Publisher: Clinco Communications).
In the past she has edited newsletters for Decision Health/United Communications Group on pediatrics, ophthalmology, and urology; and substance abuse news publications for Business Research Publications and Warren, Gorham, and Lamont.
Barbara Jean Goodheart, BA, ELS (Contributing Writer for Addiction Treatment Forum)
Barbara Goodheart is an award-winning medical writer and a certified editor in the life sciences.
She has worked as an independent contractor with more than 40 leading medical associations, medical education companies, and pharmaceutical companies, among them the American College of Chest Physicians, the American Medical Association, and Rush-Presbyterian- St. Luke’s Medical Center.
Barbara’s publications include accredited continuing medical educational programs (CMEs) for physicians; accredited educational programs for nurses and pharmacists; summaries of advisory board meetings; summaries of symposium proceedings; monographs; technical manuals for physicians and other health care professionals; clinical reports for FDA submission; and educational programs for general audiences.
In addition to contributing to six nonfiction books, including a Book-of- the-Month- Club Dividend, and authoring two young adult nonfiction books, Barbara has published the first three in a series of ebooks on diabetes (The Diabetes Leading Edge Series), with her co-author, Clyde Goodheart, MD, MS, MBA. The ebooks are soon to be followed by print editions.
Barbara’s awards include the Beth Fonda Award for excellence in communications for a lay audience, Honorable Mention, for her high school textbook, Diabetes; the Sound/Sight Award, American Medical Writers Association, Greater Chicago Area Chapter (GCAC), for a series of patient education films on diabetes; the Morris Fishbein Award for distinguished achievement in medical writing, Honorable Mention, for a film for surgeons; and a special award for print and audiovisual work, American Medical Writers Association (GCAC).
In 2009 Barbara passed a three-hour certification exam testing editing proficiency in the life sciences (medicine, biology), allowing her to use the designation ELS—editor in the life sciences—after her name.
Barbara’s professional memberships include the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the American Medical Writers Association, the Association of Health Care Journalists, Midwest Writers Association, and Independent Writers of Chicago.
Barbara received her Bachelor of Arts degree (Biology major, Psychology minor), from Northwestern University.