Investigator, Instructor (M) Psych Addiction (CAM) MGPO, Mass General Research Institute

Instructor in Psychiatry Harvard Medical School

addiction; adolescents; cannabis-related disorder; cbd; cognitive behavioral therapy; community-based participatory research; cues; disease prevention; e-cigarettes and vaping; fnirs; health equity; mental health in schools; nicotine dependence; smoking; smoking cessation; smoking cues; smoking relapse prevention; thc; tobacco use disorder; transcranial magnetic stimulation (tms); vaping cessation; varenicline; virtual reality

Program Director, Center for Addiction Medicine; Assistant in Research Psychiatry and Instructor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Pachas is a physician-scientist with clinical research experience in addiction treatment settings, she received her medical degree from San Martin de Porres University and received health services management and public health training from the National University Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, Peru. She also completed a Fellowship in addiction clinical research at the Center for Addiction Medicine (MGH-Harvard Medical School) and a fellowship on Hispanic drug abuse and addiction disparities in the Interdisciplinary Research Training Institute (IRTI) at the University of Houston. Dr Pachas trained as a Freedom from Smoking facilitator at the American Lung Association and completed the Tobacco Treatment specialist CORE Training at the UMASS medical school. Dr Pachas is a co-investigator/project director of several studies conducted in our center, including novel pharmacotherapeutic interventions for smoking cessation and relapse prevention in smokers with and without psychiatric comorbidity. She has been conducting successful, productive, and collaborative addiction research projects. Her expertise focuses on all aspects of clinical research, including protocol design, grant writing, data collection, management and quality assurance, regulatory (IRB, FDA and other institutions), cognitive behavioral therapy for treatment of nicotine dependence, clinical evaluation, and study-related clinical care in a multidisciplinary setting. Dr Pachas also has expertise on implementing the integrated health services model, including preventive integrated care, promotion of health, and community health work that involved coordination and education of community health workers and non-profit organizations on prevention, surveillance and referral systems and community communication programs. In addition, Dr Pachas is committed to promoting diversity in clinical research and to the understanding of racial and ethnic disparities in community’s health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was a first responder as part of the MGH Gonzales Spanish Language Care Group assisting medical teams caring for COVID limited English proficiency Spanish-speaking patients on surge floors, the intensive care units and Emergency Department. Now, as a Medical Liaison in the Equity and Community Health team and as a MGH Community Messenger and Trusted Messenger, she has been working in vulnerable communities, supporting COVID testing and vaccination efforts among minoritized communities