The Matthew Perry Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have created an addiction medicine training fellowship in Matthew Perry’s name and selected its inaugural fellow, the organizations announced Tuesday.
The Matthew Perry Foundation Fellowship in Addiction Medicine allows a residency-trained physician to join MGH’s Addiction Medicine Fellowship to study addiction treatment and work toward providing addiction care in their future practice.
Dr. Sarah “SK” Kler is the first candidate to be selected for the new fellowship, which is set for the 2025-2026 academic year. Dr. Kler is currently Chief Medical Resident in Internal Medicine at MGH and will begin the fellowship training in June.
The MGH fellowship program, which is also funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration, includes three total participants who will rotate through different departments and regional partners of Mass General Brigham, the healthcare system of which MGH is a founding member.
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“The Matthew Perry Foundation is honored to be in partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital’s Addiction Medicine Fellowship program. Matthew believed deeply in eliminating the stigma surrounding the disease of addiction and, with that in mind, we are proud to lend our name to this important work,” the foundation’s chairman of the board Doug Chapin and executive director Lisa Kasteler Calio said in a statement.
The Matthew Perry Foundation was created to recognize Perry and his dedication to aiding people combatting addiction. The “Friends” died in October 2023 of a ketamine overdose.
“Continuing to silo addiction care outside the rest of medical care and marginalize addiction as a social problem outside of the domain of physicians will only exacerbate stigma and inequities and increase the deadly impact of this epidemic,” Dr. Sarah Wakeman, the fellowship’s program director, said in a statement. “It is vitally important for the medical community to address substance use disorder using effective, holistic, wraparound services across medical settings. The training provided through the MGH fellowship will allow the next generation of physicians to provide and continually improve this care.”
“Mass General will work in close collaboration with the Matthew Perry Foundation to raise awareness, reduce stigma, and, most importantly, offer hope to those of every age, background and experience who are struggling with substance use disorder,” she added.