Anika Alvanzo, MD, MS, DFASAM, FACP

Principal

Health Management Associates

Philadelphia, PA

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Dr. Anika Alvanzo is a distinguished healthcare executive with over 15 years of experience in specialty addiction treatment, behavioral health integration, and quality improvement.

At Health Management Associates (HMA), Dr. Alvanzo’s consulting work has focused on supporting state and local jurisdictions with community needs assessment and strategic planning for behavioral health service delivery; providing training, technical assistance and coaching to behavioral health providers; implementing the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) Criteria; and advancing cultural humility in addiction treatment.

Before joining HMA, Dr. Alvanzo was a regional medical director for Pyramid Healthcare, Inc., responsible for optimizing and standardizing medical care and emphasizing substance withdrawal management and pharmacotherapy within the residential addiction treatment programs in eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland. She developed and implemented protocols for management of alcohol, benzodiazepine, and opioid withdrawal syndromes; led teams of physicians and advanced practice practitioners within each treatment site; and provided education and training to medical, nursing, and counseling staff.

Concurrently, for three years, Dr. Alvanzo served as a physician program specialist for the Behavioral Health Administration in the Maryland Department of Health. In this role, she provided senior-level clinical consultations, including assistance with the planning and implementation of overdose prevention projects. She responded to state and federal policymakers on a variety of addiction-related inquiries and issues and provided expert guidance on medical practice standards for the treatment of substance use and co-occurring disorders for state-funded substance use disorder treatment programs.

Prior to this, Dr. Alvanzo was a faculty member for 12 years in the divisions of general internal medicine and addiction medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. There, she held various clinical leadership roles including medical director of the comprehensive opioid treatment program (OTP) on the Johns Hopkins Hospital campus and director of the multidisciplinary addiction consultation service. The service provided clinical consultation, intervention, and treatment linkage services for patients admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital and, under Dr. Alvanzo’s leadership, received the annual Johns Hopkins Medicine Clinical Collaboration and Teamwork Award. 

Dr. Alvanzo has more than a decade of teaching experience. For seven years, she directed the addiction medicine rotation for the Johns Hopkins Medicine-Pediatrics and Primary Care Internal Medicine Urban Health residency track programs. She also has been faculty for ASAM courses on the fundamentals of addiction medicine, treatment of opioid use disorder, and the ASAM criteria. Currently she serves as chair of the Program Planning Committee for the ASAM Annual Conference. 

Earning recognition as a national leader in addiction medicine, Dr. Alvanzo has also served as a subject matter expert on national panels, including the National Institutes of Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Quality Forum, and PEW Research Center on topics such as opioids and chronic pain, quality metric development, medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) integration, and recovery support services. Her publications span topics including alcohol withdrawal management and the association between psychological trauma, posttraumatic stress, and substance use, particularly in women.

Dr. Alvanzo earned her Doctor of Medicine from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She also earned a master’s degree in biostatistics from Virginia Commonwealth University and a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Virginia. Dr. Alvanzo is board certified in internal medicine and addiction medicine, is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (ACP), and is a Distinguished Fellow of ASAM.