(Left to right) Brett Jesse, MD; Meena Sreedhara, MD; Jacob Givens, MD; Christian Pollema, MD; Brittany Bamberg, MD; Tony Le, MD; and Andrew Leavitt, MD, attended the APA Annual Meeting in May in San Francisco, California.
The Department of Psychiatry sent a large contingent of faculty and residents to the biggest psychiatry get-together in the US.
Sixteen department members traveled to San Francisco for the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Annual Meeting last month.
Howard Liu, MD, MBA, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, was part of numerous presentations and workshops, highlighted by his participation in the APA Medical Leadership Workshop Group and Psychiatric News Editorial Advisory Board and a presentation on the future of AI and healthcare titled, “The Last of Us: Developing Resilient Policies to Survive the Era of AI.”
“There were many inspiring discussions on the crucial role of psychiatrists as leaders in clinical care, systems and education at the conference,” Dr. Liu said. “I’m honored to serve on these important committees in healthcare and healthcare communications. Science communication is essential to share the exciting frontiers of psychiatry and why it matters to patients, families and policy leaders.”
Nine of the 16 department members who traveled to California were residents. Brittany Bamberg, MD, currently a second-year resident and incoming Junior Chief Resident, attended and worked at the department’s information booth. Dr. Bamberg and first-year resident Meena Sreedhara, MD, spoke with potential employees and trainees.
“We had a lot of traffic,” Dr. Bamberg said. “We talked to a lot of medical students, and we were able to answer questions about the program, about Omaha, and show our congeniality.”
Dr. Bamberg said the booth was front and center in the hall, and while she and Dr. Sreedhara were in charge of it, all the residents at the meeting spent time there answering questions and talking about the residency program’s success.
While at the annual meeting, the Nebraska Psychiatric Society of the APA met. The NPS is led this year by UNMC adult psychiatrists Melissa O’Dell, MD, and Matthew Kelly. Dr. O’Dell is the president, and Dr. Kelly is the secretary/treasurer.
Dr. Kelly said a number of action papers were submitted for group debate, spanning a wide range of topics: trauma-informed activity of law enforcement agencies, protecting “Psychiatrist” and related terms from misappropriation to non-physicians, and advancing knowledge on emerging topics in Psychiatry, such as psychiatric indications for GLP-1 agonists and artificial intelligence.
“The discussions were helpful. It was democracy in action!” Dr. Kelly said.
Alëna Balasanova, MD, had four presentations at the conference. She said she enjoyed working with the former Chief Resident of the Department, Jacob Givens, MD, on “Brief Educational Interventions to Empower the Psychiatric Workforce to Decrease Addiction Stigma.”
They also presented at the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT) and American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. At the first two conferences, Dr. Balasanova was Chair during the previous presentations, but at APA she handed the reins to Dr. Givens, who said he was thrilled to step forward as Chair.
“We had done the presentation, and he knew the materials, so I asked him if he wanted to be the chair,” Dr. Balasanova said. “For a resident who just graduated, it was cool for him to be officially in charge.”
Michael Dawes, MD, Boston University School of Medicine; Sandra DeJong, MD, MSc, Cambridge Health Alliance; and Jeremy Weleff, DO, Yale School of Medicine, were also part of Dr. Givens’ presenting team.