Program Overview and Goals

The Department of Psychiatry has a one-year fellowship training program in Psychosomatic Medicine. (Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry) The program provides in-depth, balanced experience in didactics, clinical experience and research in Psychosomatic Medicine at a PGY4 level.

Two positions are available every year in the ACGME-accredited program. The Department of Psychiatry has several board-certified full time and part time faculty members who offer a strong didactic curriculum.

Clinical experience is directly supervised by 3 Consultation Liaison Psychiatrists (Board-certified in Psychosomatic Medicine) and involves inpatient and outpatient consultation liaison experience. The training is in an up to date, well-established university teaching hospital and an academic affiliated veteran’s hospital.

Clinical rotation includes (but not limited to):

• Inpatient Consultation
• Consult and Liaison in Primary Care
• Medicine
• Oncology
• HIV
• Pain
• Organ Transplantation

The Department of Psychiatry has a strong psychiatry residency program. These positions offer an exceptional opportunity for professional growth and training under the supervision of a team of CL psychiatrists, as well as developing a career in the growing fields of Psychosomatic Medicine.

• To provide opportunities for residents to acquire advanced clinical knowledge and skills in the field of Psychosomatic Medicine, including the ability to establish such a service at another institution.
• To teach the clinical skills of making precise observations and using such information in formulating recommendations and implementing psychosocial treatment interventions in the medical and surgical setting.
• To enhance understanding of the relationships between psychosocial and biomedical factors in the medically/surgically ill.
• To train academic leaders and practitioners in Psychosomatic Medicine and to stimulate interest in research.
• To demonstrate adequate medical knowledge about established and evolving medical care, obtain competencies in patient care, practice - based learning, interpersonal communication skills and system - based practice. Residents must also demonstrate professionalism and adhere to ethical principles.
• To develop an understanding of various functions of an interdisciplinary team in the care and management of the medically/surgically ill patient.
• To educate psychiatric residents, medical students, and other non-psychiatric physicians, nurses and social workers about psychiatric complications of medical and surgical illness.

The Fellow will:

• Develop specific clinical knowledge in the psychiatric care of the medically ill. These will include diagnostic skills, consultation and evaluative techniques, alternative models of crisis intervention and application of time-limited psychotherapy.
• Develop clinical expertise in the care and management of the many types of patients seen in the general medical setting such as Coronary Care Unit, Intensive Care Unit, and in settings devoted to geriatric, oncology, AIDS, transplant, and terminally ill patients).
• Have an understanding of the field of Psychosomatic Medicine through extensive exposure to the literature in behavioral medicine, psychosomatic medicine and biopsychosocial medicine.
• Gain an advanced understanding of pharmacology, including the psychopharmacology of the medically ill, with emphasis on non-psychotropic medications (and their side effects) and the interactions of psychotropic medications with other medications on the central nervous system.
• Participate in the curriculum, such as rounds, conferences, supervision, didactics, and seminars.
• Develop teaching skills as a Psychosomatic Medicine psychiatrist so that he/she has the ability to teach health care providers in various levels of training through the use of didactic presentations, and case oriented patient-care conferences, and informal, individualized supervision of non-psychiatric health care professionals.
• Develop an understanding of research methodology and apply it to a research question in Psychosomatic Medicine. These may include case reports, case series or literature review.
• Gain an adequate knowledge of the organizational and administrative skills needed to finance, staff and manage a C-L service.
• Demonstrate competence in the six general competencies of theACGME.

• To provide outpatient consultation and support to primary care providers which will allow them to identify and treat primary care patients with psychiatric concerns. This is done under the supervision of a psychosomatic medicine faculty member.
• Specifically, the fellow after a full year of training, should be able to consult with a primary care provider as to a patient's need for psychotherapeutic medications including dosing and drug-to-drug interaction.
• To initiate or provide appropriate psychotherapeutic training of the primary care provider.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities of the psychosomatic fellow include providing inpatient and outpatient consultation, opportunities for collaboration, research, and teaching of medical students, psychiatry residents, and psychology interns.

Sites for training

• SUNY Upstate Medical University,
  750 East Adams Street, Syracuse, NY 13210
  
  
• VA Medical Center,
  Syracuse, NY, 13210