Newswise — Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine has received initial accreditation from the national Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for a University-sponsored residency program in psychiatry, in collaboration with its member teaching hospitals in the FAU College of Medicine Graduate Medical Education (GME) Consortium.
This new program brings a total of four residency programs to FAU: internal medicine (launched in 2014); general surgery (launched in 2016); emergency medicine (launches this July); and psychiatry (launches in 2018).
The four-year psychiatry residency program is based at Tenet HealthCare system’s Delray Medical Center, the primary site for the program, South County Mental Health Center in Delray Beach and Boca Raton Regional Hospital. The program has been approved for 16 positions and will participate in the National Resident Matching Program to welcome its inaugural class on July 1, 2018.
“The United States faces a critical shortage of psychiatrists as the demand for mental health services at all levels continues to rise exponentially,” said Phillip Boiselle, M.D., dean of FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. “Working in concert with our outstanding hospital partners in our Graduate Medical Education Consortium we are committed to providing a strong health care delivery system in this region. The addition of our newest residency program in psychiatry is a testament to our continued commitment.”
FAU’s psychiatry curriculum will include clinical neuroscience, psychotherapy, psychopathology and somatic therapies. The psychiatry residency is led by program director John W. Newcomer, M.D., a leading neuroscientist and psychiatrist, and a professor of integrated medical science in FAU’s College of Medicine.
“We are proud to partner with Florida Atlantic University, our colleagues in the GME Consortium and leadership in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine to bring this important program to Palm Beach County,” said Mark Bryan, CEO of Delray Medical Center. “Our state-of-the-art psychiatric center provides high-quality inpatient programs and will give FAU’s psychiatry residents access to leading physicians and professionals in the field as well as an optimal environment to care for those with various psychiatric disorders and conditions.”
In 2015, the National Institute of Mental Health estimated that 9.8 million Americans over the age of 18 suffered from a serious mental illness and an estimated 43.4 million adults aged 18 or older had a mental illness (AMI or any mental illness), representing 17.9 percent of all U.S. adults.
A survey by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) found that 59 percent of psychiatrists are 55 or older, the fourth oldest of 41 medical specialties. In 2014, 45 states had fewer psychiatrists relative to their populations than they had in 2009. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), the total number of physicians in the U.S. increased by 45 percent from 1995 to 2013, while the number of adult and child psychiatrists only rose by 12 percent, from 43,640 to 49,079.
“This new program will help to enrich psychiatry and general medical care at Delray Medical Center, South County Mental Health Center and Boca Raton Regional Hospital and will grow scholarly activity and research,” said Lee A. Learman, M.D., Ph.D., senior associate dean for graduate medical education and academic affairs, and designated institutional official. “Our psychiatry residents also will teach third and fourth year medical students at FAU to encourage career choices in psychiatry to help address the troubling projected shortages in this important medical specialty.”
In fall 2011, the FAU College of Medicine GME Consortium was formed in partnership with FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Bethesda Hospital East, and Tenet HealthCare system’s Delray Medical Center, St. Mary’s Medical Center and West Boca Medical Center to establish residency programs in specialties that would serve their communities.
FAU’s six-year general surgery training program is based at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, the primary site for the program, as well as Bethesda Hospital East, and Tenet HealthCare System’s Delray Medical Center, St. Mary’s Medical Center and West Boca Medical Center. The three-year emergency medicine training program is based at Bethesda Hospital East, the primary site for the program, as well as St. Mary’s Medical Center and Delray Medical Center. FAU’s first residency in internal medicine is based at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, the primary site for the program, with participation from Bethesda Hospital East and Delray Medical Center. All five hospitals are member teaching hospitals in the FAU College of Medicine GME Consortium.
Hospital members of the FAU College of Medicine GME Consortium are Bethesda Hospital East (Roger Kirk, president and CEO, and Daniel S. Goldman, M.D., vice president of medical affairs); Boca Raton Regional Hospital (Jerry Fedele, president and CEO, and Cristina Mata, M.D., vice president and chief medical officer); Delray Medical Center (Mark Bryan, CEO, and Anthony Dardano, M.D., vice president of academic affairs); St. Mary’s Medical Center (Gabrielle Finley-Hazle, CEO, and Lawrence Lottenberg, M.D., associate dean for medical education and director of medical education) and West Boca Medical Center (Mitch Feldman, CEO, and Jack Harari, M.D., chief medical officer).
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About the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine:
FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine is one of 147 accredited medical schools in the U.S. The college was launched in 2010, when the Florida Board of Governors made a landmark decision authorizing FAU to award the M.D. degree. After receiving approval from the Florida legislature and the governor, it became the 134th allopathic medical school in North America. With more than 70 full and part-time faculty and more than 1,300 affiliate faculty, the college matriculates 64 medical students each year and has been nationally recognized for its innovative curriculum. To further FAU’s commitment to increase much needed medical residency positions in Palm Beach County and to ensure that the region will continue to have an adequate and well-trained physician workforce, the FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine Consortium for Graduate Medical Education (GME) was formed in fall 2011 with five leading hospitals in Palm Beach County. In June 2014, FAU’s College of Medicine welcomed its inaugural class of 36 residents in its first University-sponsored residency in internal medicine.
About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida. FAU’s world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU’s existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.
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