MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN
 The
Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is a
national leader in clinical care, research, and education. Building on a
long-standing tradition of excellence, the Department offers a flexible and
comprehensive residency training program designed to prepare graduates for
prominent positions in basic and clinical psychiatric research, clinical care,
education and training, and psychiatric administration, by exposing them to
contemporary theories and practices.
In keeping with the precepts of modern psychiatry, one of the principal
objectives of our residency training program - which integrates child,
adolescent, and adult psychiatry - is to prepare scientist-clinicians who not
only seek research and academic careers but also want to acquire the clinical
skills and knowledge needed to practice psychiatry at its most contemporary and
informed levels. To this end, the Department seeks to create an exciting
academic climate and provide the requisite opportunities for residents to pursue
their intellectual interests while developing clinical and laboratory skills and
acquiring the experience needed to further their research careers beyond their
residencies. A research track within the residency program is available for
residents who wish to pursue a career focusing on research.
The academic medical center of the 21st century must meet the
demands of clinical service, training, and research within a health care
environment that is constantly changing. The explosion of neurobiological
research, coupled with the market forces of health care reform, will make this
era both exciting and challenging. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
and the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) are uniquely qualified
to lead this revolution. We are the foremost non-governmental site of
psychiatric research in the United States, second only to the National Institute
of Mental Health's intramural program in size and scope. We are also a regional
provider of medical and psychiatric care for the tri-state are of western
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and eastern Ohio, and are the major provider of
mental health care services to the chronically and persistently mentally ill of
Allegheny and the adjoining counties in Pennsylvania. These functions define
WPIC as a regional and national force in academic and public sector psychiatry,
and place us at the forefront of health care initiatives to treat homeless,
substance dependent, and forensic psychiatric patients.
The Department and WPIC also have an international reputation for initiatives
in international health care and human rights. Teams of psychiatrists from WPIC
have helped to address psychiatric abuses in the former Soviet Union and have
delivered mental health care to orphaned children with neuropsychiatric
disorders in Romania.
In our effort to train psychiatry's future leaders, we seek to attract
residents whose common characteristics are a desire to learn and a capacity to
excel. The psychiatrist of the future must be equally adept at psychiatric
differential diagnosis, medical and psychosocial treatments, health care team
management, and medical economics. We continue our push to identify cutting-edge
treatment approaches to persistent problems in psychiatry and commit to teaching
our future clinicians the skills necessary to successfully implement these
approaches. We urge you to join us in shaping the future our exciting
discipline.
David J. Kupfer, M.D.
Thomas Detre Professor and Chair,
Department of Psychiatry, and Professor of Neuroscience
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