Dr. Erin Barnes is an infectious diseases physician and addiction medicine specialist who serves as Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and an attending physician at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, where she directs both the Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OPAT) Program and ID‑Addiction services. In her role as OPAT Director, Dr. Barnes leads a high‑complexity, high‑volume program, developing and continuously refining policies for patient selection, laboratory monitoring, risk mitigation, and care coordination. Her work has been particularly impactful for patients with severe infections who have traditionally been excluded from OPAT, including people who inject drugs. Through iterative program design, interdisciplinary training, and evidence‑based protocols for oral and intravenous antimicrobial therapy, she has advanced safer, more equitable access to OPAT while maintaining clinical outcomes and patient safety.
Dr. Barnes’s work at the intersection of OPAT and addiction medicine has positioned her as a national leader in integrated infectious disease–addiction care. She is board‑certified in Addiction Medicine and directs an integrated ID‑Addiction clinic that combines treatment of severe infections with evidence‑based medications for opioid use disorder, harm reduction, and longitudinal addiction care. Her research and scholarship focus on injection drug use–associated infections, including infective endocarditis, OPAT decision‑making for patients with substance use disorders, and health system strategies to reduce stigma and improve care delivery. As principal investigator on a multi‑year SAMHSA award, Dr. Barnes is expanding access to addiction treatment for hospitalized patients through innovative models of care directly addressing gaps that drive reinfection andoverdose risk.
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