January 2008
1. Annual Meeting:
In August 2007 we held the Annual Meeting of the AMP in collaboration with a meeting of Combined Residencies in Iowa City, IA. This followed on the success of a similar meeting of the Combined residencies the previous year with a two pronged focus of 1) a CME program on mental health problems in primary care, and treating patients with complex comorbid illness and 2) Workshops addressing the needs of residents and graduates of combined programs including career planning and a vignette competition. The meeting was well attended with representatives of residency programs from across the country as well as primary care providers and mental health professionals from across the region. There were also a number of medical students with an interest in psychosomatic medicine or combined residency training that attended the program. The association plans to repeat this conference with a similar format in 2008 and the details of this are being finalized and will be disseminated to you by Mid-February.
While past meetings have traditionally been held in conjunction with a national meeting such as the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine or the Society of General Internal Medicine, there seems to be enough interest in the areas of our focus that this meeting can sustain itself independently and attract a mixed audience of primary care providers, dually trained physicians and some mental health professionals. The association will continue to collaborating with the abovementioned organizations in a variety of ways over the coming years.
2. Association Journal:
The AMP recently renewed it’s association with the Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry which is the official journal of the organization. The journal leadership remains very enthusiastic about the collaboration and welcomes submissions from our members. All active members receive a complimentary subscription to the Journal. Due to problems in our membership directory many of you have not been receiving the journal, but renewing your membership at this time will allow us to correct that situation.
3. Renewed focus on dissemination of knowledge:
Dissemination of knowledge regarding co-morbid illness and its treatment to both primary care providers and mental health professionals working in such areas has always been a focus of the association. As mentioned above this was a major focus of the recent conference in the form of CME programs directed at primary care physicians and psychiatrists. The Association plans to renew this focus through expansion of the annual meeting and the collaboration with the journal. There are plans to include dissemination of research findings with poster and scientific presentations at the annual meeting.
4. Forums on Integrated Care:
Roger Kathol, a founding member of this organization has been working on developing a national meeting of people and organizations associated with integrated care programs. This is meant to be a forum for dissemination of practice models and collaboration and innovation. There are plans to try to collaborate or integrate this with our annual meeting in the future.
5. Combined Training
a. Program Director Forum: The last year has seen some exciting developments in combined residency training in Internal Medicine/Psychiatry and Family Medicine/Psychiatry. 3 new programs opened their doors to applicants this year as well as one program expanding it’s number of positions. The program directors have formed a collaborative group under the auspices of this organization and are moving forward with plans to collaborate on issues of program development, assessment and recruitment. While some programs have closed, there is considerable optimism that this new collaboration will reverse this trend.
b. Fenton Award: The Martin Fenton award remains the only award of it’s kind awarded annually to an outstanding resident in a combined Family Medicine/Psychiatry or Internal Medicine/Psychiatry residency program.
c. Outreach to Medical Students: Several program directors have pioneered outreach programs to medical schools in their region, in order to educate students on the nature of combined programs and the kinds of career paths that they lead to. Further collaborative efforts utilizing the AMP website as well as direct contact with medical and osteopathic school interest groups are being planned by the program directors in collaboration.
