Pre-Clinical Drug Testing

Drug screening for CUIMC must be completed from start to finish through CUIMC Student Health on Haven.

There will be no additional cost to you to complete the test. The cost of the drug test is included in the Health and Related Services Fee (HRSF).

You will receive an email with a link to your registration. You must register for the screening within 5 days of receiving the email. You will then have 10 business days from the date of registration to complete your drug screening. Please note that other deadlines may be instituted by your clinical site or your academic program.

If you do not complete your drug screening in the allotted time, your test will be considered positive. You will be required to meet with the Director of Addiction Information & Management Strategies (AIMS). Furthermore, failure to comply may warrant notification to your Student Affairs Dean.

If your registration link has expired, please reach out to the Director of Addiction Information and Management Strategies (AIMS). The circumstances will be reviewed and then a new registration link will be dispatched upon approval.

There is varied information available about what will cause a false positive. We encourage students to do their own research from validated sources. This is part of a practice in professionalism as a health professional completing a drug screening.

Drug screening results will be held in strict confidence in the student’s medical record unless released at a student’s request or under certain specific circumstances: a danger to self or others, including risk to patients, or failure to follow up with a mandated program following a positive test.

If you test positive, you will be contacted by the Medical Review Officer (MRO). The MRO will ask if you are prescribed medication that could have been responsible for a positive screening. If so, the MRO will ask you to produce verification documents. Upon verification, the results will be recorded as negative. The only exception is in the case of medical marijuana. See below for more details.

While THC is not included on the Pre-clinical Drug Testing panel, some clinical sites may require THC to be screened to participate in their clinical rotations. Any positive marijuana screening will be reported as positive regardless of prescription status and/or individual state laws. The medical review protocol is aligned with federal mandates that classify marijuana as an illicit substance. We encourage you to reach out to the AIMS program for a confidential conversation to discuss any questions or concerns.

For more information, please contact the Director of AIMS at sg3052@cumc.columbia.edu or 212-305-3400.