I am an internal medicine physician who became interested in the intersection of infectious diseases and addiction medicine during my Wake Forest fellowship. At that time there were very large numbers of patients suffering and dying from injection drug use-associated infective endocarditis; they presented with both unique epidemiologic features as well as difficult clinical management challenges. I pursued a Masters in order to be able to better study the epidemiology, clinical difficulties, pathophysiology, and treatment strategies for complex infections in this patient population. I currently co-treat addiction in certain infectious disease patients and hope to continue to grow our capabilities. I am also the co-director of the Wake Forest Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Treatment team and work to effectively, efficiently, and safely manage infections requiring prolonged antimicrobials in a home or rehabilitation setting. We continue to explore how to better incorporate our patients with substance use disorders into this outpatient antimicrobial practice.