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Welcome to our New Department Director!
Starting on April 4, 2016, Ali Iqbal, MBA will join us as our new Director of Administration and Finance.
 Ali has a background in finance and international business with leadership experience in strategic financial management and administration. He comes to us from Oregon Health Science University, where for the past six years he served as the Associate Dean of Finance for the School of Dentistry and before that as Finance Manager in the Department of Biochemistry and Cardiovascular Medicine in the School of Medicine. Ali excelled there by creating organizational efficiencies and fostering financial sustainability. He is passionate about using his talents to improve health care and is looking forward to delving into the world of mental health with us.
Ali received his MBA in International Finance from the Helsinki School of Economics and is fluent in English, Spanish and Urdu. In his free time, he and his wife enjoy traveling, snowboarding and taking long hikes in the Cascades. Ali will be located in the Chair’s office suite and he looks forward to getting around to our major departmental sites and meeting our faculty and staff. He can be reached at aliiqbal@uw.edu or 206-616-0863. Please join Dr. Unützer and the entire administrative staff in extending a warm welcome to Ali.
New Chief of Psychiatry at VA Puget Sound!
We also welcome David Ruskin, MD as the new Chief of Psychiatry at VA Puget Sound!  Dr. Ruskin is a board-certified psychiatrist with board-certifications in Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine, and Brain-Injury Medicine. He started at the Seattle VA in 2014 as director of Acute-Care Mental Health and was also appointed as Acting Associate Chief of Staff for theVA Puget Sound Mental Health Service in 2016.
Prior to joining the VA, Dr. Ruskin served two years as both the director of consultation-liaison and the director of psychiatric emergency services at the University of Southern California’s psychiatric emergency room, one of the busiest facilities of its kind in the United States. David has also held positions as Director of Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry at Los Angeles County General Hospital, Associate Program Director for the USC/WLA-VA Psychosomatic-Medicine Fellowship Program, Director of Psychiatric Emergency Services at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute & Hospital, and Director of Psychiatric Emergency Services at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
Dr. Ruskin has received many accolades from residents and medical students for his outstanding clinical supervision and education in emergency and consultation-liaison psychiatry. He received the USC psychiatric-residency’s prestigious “Teacher of the Year” two years in a row prior to relocating to Seattle.
Accepting Nominations for the
Wayne J. Katon Outstanding Mentor Award
Nominations for the Wayne J. Katon Outstanding Mentor Award are now being accepted. This prestigious award acknowledges the time, dedication, and attention that faculty members devote to foster the career development and academic success of colleagues and trainees in the areas of research, clinical practice and education. Deadline is April 30, 2016. More information
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Psychology Internship Match Results
Our fabulous Psychology Internship program has once again recruited a wonderful class of new residents! Sincere thanks go to Dr. Peter Esselman, chair of Rehabilitation Medicine; to our track coordinators Drs. Gretchen Gudmundsen (Child), Michele Bedard-Gilligan (Adult) and Chuck Bombardier (Behavioral Medicine/Neuropsychology); to our Program Coordinator Sally Burgdorff and Educational Suite Staff including Athena Wong, Charisa Lantin, and Liz Tyson; and to all of the faculty, fellows and residents who helped in all aspects of the application process, Open House and meetings with applicants. Our success is a testament to the quality of our faculty and training. Meet the incoming psychology residents!
Psychiatry Residency Match Results
We had a very successful Match this year thanks to the efforts of our team of faculty, residents, and staff. Our admissions committee (Drs. Murray, Augello, Bergquist, Curry, Duncan, Markman, Pascualy, Pascoe, Pellegrino, Poeschla, Pullen, and Undurti) put in many hours of work (Jesse Markman interviewed 26!), and our residency staff did their usual amazing job of organizing everything. We had over 1,290 applications (762 from U.S. graduates), and interviewed 168 applicants. We filled all 20 slots and are thrilled to have these incredible candidates join us this summer. Meet the incoming psychiatry residents!
Annual Faculty Teaching Retreat April 6
The annual faculty teaching retreat will be held the afternoon of Wednesday, April 6 at the Center for Urban Horticulture. This year's retreat will feature a workshop by Rebekah Burns, MD from Pediatrics about developing a curriculum and publishing it on MedEd Portal, a session about achieving regional/national recognition, and a panel discussion with tips for promotion as a clinician teacher. If you would like to attend this retreat, please RSVP to Anders McConachie in the Education Office.
Soliciting Nominations for the Gary J. Tucker Career Teaching Award. Due May 8!
We invite you to nominate one of our academic or clinical faculty members for the Gary J. Tucker Career Teaching Award. Established in recognition of Gary J. Tucker, MD, Chair of our Department from 1985 through 1997, the Tucker Award recognizes exceptional career achievement in teaching and education within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and honors Dr. Tucker's significant contributions to our academic programs, his leadership and dedication as a teacher, clinician, and scholar, his love of teaching, and his ability to inspire and encourage trainees.
The award is given to a member of the academic or clinical faculty who has demonstrated, throughout his or her career, outstanding skills as a teacher and dedication to education. To date, five members of our faculty have received this award: Jack Carr, Johan Verhulst, Chris Varley, Joan Romano, Deb Cowley, and Dick Miyoshi.
If you would like to nominate someone for this award, please send his/her name and a paragraph about why you are nominating him/her to Deb Cowley by Friday, May 8.
Save the Date! Graduation Ceremony June 18
The Department's annual Graduation ceremony will be on Saturday, June 18 from 11 AM-3 PM at the Center for Urban Horticulture. This ceremony will honor the graduates of our many educational programs.
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Addictions Team Makes a Splash
A record number of our Addictions faculty presented at the Washington State Addiction Medicine conference on March 10-11 in Tulalip, Washington. Our strong representation speaks to the great work we’re doing in the Addictions field.
Mark Duncan and Richard Ries presented on media portrayal of addiction, Jon Adelstien gave the Addiction Psychiatry Fellows lecture, Caleb Banta-Green participated in a panel discussion opioid drug problems and treatment responses, and Mike McDonnel discussed treatment of inflamed livers in addiction patients.
Additionally, Susan Collins presented on harm reduction treatment, Chris Dunn discussed motivational interviewing and how to learn it, Mary Larimer presented on the use of cognitive behavioral therapy in addiction treatment, and previous fellow and attending Laura Fergusson-Moss presented on treatment issues specific to women.
Drs. Larimer, Dunn, and Collins also participated in a panel on integrating counseling and therapy techniques in treatment visits.
Using Longitudinal Remote Consultation for Collaborative Care and Perinatal Depression
Ian Bennett, a family physician with a joint appointment in Psychiatry and Family Medicine, recently received a NIMH grant to study two different methods of implementing an evidence-based care program for perinatal depression in primary care. In this new 5-year grant, he will work closely with our department’s AIMS Center, Drs. Jürgen Unützer and Amritha Bhat, and 20 Community Health Clinics in California.
Dr. Bennett's study will evaluate a training resource called longitudinal remote consultation (LRC) which utilizes video conferencing to efficiently link depression care teams at health centers with psychiatric consultants. Psychiatric consultants can then observe key care processes and provide timely feedback and training to care teams. The results of the study will provide important, generalizable knowledge on the benefits of ongoing consultation for implementation of collaborative care.
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New Psychiatry Consultation and Telepsychiatry Program (PCAT)
Our Department has a longstanding history of practice and innovation in telepsychiatric care. Last year alone, we provided more than 15,000 telehealth consultations to primary care providers and other clinicians throughout Washington and the five-state WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho) region. Building on our success, we've launched a new Psychiatry Consultation and Telepsychiatry Program called UW PCAT to meet the increasing mental health needs of our region.
Led by Marc Avery, MD, UW PCAT will offer Telepsychiatric Consultation Services to outpatient primary care teams as well as Inpatient “Hospital to Hospital” Psychiatric Consultation/Liaison Services to patients who are admitted to community hospitals without access to on-site psychiatric care and consultation. Cara Towle, RN MSN was recently hired as Associate Director of the program after working as Director of Telehealth Services at UW Medicine for fifteen years. Contracts are already in place with Capitol Medical Center in Olympia and Peace Island Medical Center in Friday Harbor, and a growing number of negotiations are underway.
UW Medicine Initiative to Transform Care
UW Medicine is launching a major initiative to bring clinical practice transformation to care delivery with the goals of improving healthcare for individual patients, improving the health of the public, and controlling costs. A group of more than 300 UW Medicine Practice Innovators – including 17 faculty members from our department – will lead this new effort under the direction of Dr. Carlos Pellegrini, the new Chief Medical Officer for UW Medicine. Practice transformation efforts will focus on six key areas including providing the most effective, efficient and high value care, serving populations as well as patients, fully developing the medical home, improving our use of data to direct care, providing "healthy" care as well as "sick" care, and supporting smart innovation.
Psychiatrists Strengthen Regional Heart Center
Recognizing the importance of the mind-heart connection, we have worked with providers at the Regional Heart Center (RHC) for the past ten years to provide effective mental health care for patients. Under the leadership of Mark Sullivan, the program provides on-site consultation and care for regional heart center patients who are experiencing mental health problems in addition to their heart disease. Services range from consultation to short-term care, including psychotherapy and medication management. Conditions commonly treated include mood disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders and depression. The program also serves as a training ground for Psychiatrists in training who are interested in psychosomatic medicine and patients with heart disease.
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Dear friends and colleagues,