Dr Olga Lopatko

• Position: Lecturer B
• Qualifications: MD, PhD
• Location: Medical School Nth., Room N513, telephone 8303 5989, email : olga.lopatko@adelaide.edu.au
• Academic Interests: My current undergraduate teaching is mostly concerned with the pharmacology of drugs of dependence and abuse, and the diagnosis and treatment of drug and alcohol problems. I am a coordinator of the drug and alcohol teaching in the undergraduate medical curriculum as well as of the coursework postgraduate programs (Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma and Masters in Alcohol and Drug Studies).
• Research: My research interest is in alcohol and drug dependence. I am currently supervising research projects looking at the pharmacology of buprenorphine and its use as maintenance pharmacotherapy for opioid dependence, including use during pregnancy, and looking at the ways of reducing benzodiazepine dependence in patients receiving methadone as maintenance pharmacotherapy for opioid dependence.
• Other academic activities: I am a member of the Postgraduate Coursework Management Committee and the 2nd year MBBS Assessment Committee at the Faculty of Health Sciences.
• Service to the Community: I am a representative of the University of Adelaide at the Committee on Alcohol and Drug Education in Australian Medical Schools (CADEMS) that holds annual meetings on coordination of drug and alcohol education across medical schools in Australia and New Zealand, including exchange of experience and further development of curriculum, textbooks and teaching material.
  I am also a member of the Council of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD) and a member of the ASCEPT (Australian Society on Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology).
• General Interests: poetry, literature, classic music and jazz (and other arts).
• Sport: martial arts - karate-do (seriously!), skiing (when snow is available), rock climbing and mountaineering (haven’t done for ages, but still keen; currently replaced by walking along the beach – rather at a low altitude, but the ocean is so beautiful!).
  

Recent publications listed with PubMed

• Book chapters:

  A co-author of the chapter “Tobacco” and the principal author of the chapter “Alcohol” in the textbook “Management of alcohol and other drug problems” (Oxford University Press, 2002).

  A co-author of the chapters “The Pregnant Heroin User”. “Alcohol” and “Benzodiazepines” in the case studies workbook “Alcohol and Drug Problems” (Oxford University Press, 2004).