Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Rachel Wightman, MD is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She is triple board-certified in medical toxicology, emergency medicine, and addiction medicine. She serves as the Director of Medical Toxicology Education for Brown Emergency Medicine and also as faculty in the addiction medicine fellowship at Rhode Island Hospital.
Her research interests are emerging drug use patterns, evaluation of toxicology testing results, and medication management of opioid use disorder. She has collaborated with the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) to evaluate opioid overdose deaths with buprenorphine on toxicology testing and has funding via a COBRE pilot grant to evaluate sex-specific toxicologic and pharmacologic drivers of opioid overdose death. She co-founded the Rhode Island Buprenorphine Hotline, a statewide telehealth low-threshold buprenorphine treatment access line in partnership with RIDOH funded by SAMSHA. She is an invited member of the Rhode Island Review of Overdose Accidental Deaths (ROAD) committee.
Dr. Wightman is currently the PI on a NIDA R21 grant researching cannabinoid hyperemesis and Co-I on a CDC R01 dedicated to improve ED post-overdose care in Rhode Island. She also serves as the medical toxicology consultant for the Massachusetts Drug Supply Data Stream (MADDS), a collaborative project between Brandeis researchers and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, dedicated to learn more about the local illicit drug supply to better inform public health and public safety responses. She serves on the Medical Executive Committee at The Miriam Hospital and the Office of Women in Medicine and Science Advisory Board at Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
