(L-R) Dr. Judi Kosterman, vice president of eGetgoing™, which
leverages the Internet to provide drug and alcohol abuse treatment
services; Gen. Barry McCaffrey, former director of the White House
Office of Drug Control Policy and collaborator with eGetgoing;
Dr. Bankole A. Johnson, director of the Southwest Texas Addiction
Research and Technology Center (START) and Wurzbach
Distinguished Professor in the departments of psychiatry and
pharmacology; and Nancy Bowman, treasurer and past president
of San Antonio Fighting Back, discuss using the new computer
program as a tool to expand the reach of the START Center and
San Antonio Fighting Back into the environments of more drug and
alcohol abusers. Counselors will be kept up to date about
cutting-edge research developments from the START Center. Dr. Johnson
noted that interactive intervention may remove barriers to
treatment. "There are too many people with addiction and only so
few centers like ours," he said. "This allows someone to access the
program at his own pace, digest the information and begin to seek
help." Gen. McCaffrey, Drug Czar in the Clinton administration,
pointed out the severity of the nation's drug abuse problems, noting
24 million Americans are affected. Dr. Johnson said the general
was most impressed with the START Center. "The general said:
How did I miss coming to a treatment center like this? It is 80 times
better than the last facility I visited," Dr. Johnson said. "I told him
that the foresight and vision of the Health Science Center's
president, Dr. Francisco Cigarroa, and psychiatry chairman,
Dr. Charles Bowden, have made the START Center a reality."
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