The 2019 Annual Meeting of the Association of Medicine and Psychiatry took place at the Emory Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia, October 17-19, with great representation from Duke. A few highlights:
Jane Gagliardi, MD, MHS, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, concluded her two-year presidency of AMP and reflected on ways in which the organization has grown through membership and outreach. This year’s meeting saw record attendance, renewed interest among members to get more involved, and opportunities to expand through outreach. In May 2019, the American Psychiatric Association Assembly voted to recognize AMP as an Affiliated Member Organization; AMP will now have representation at APA Assembly meetings.
Dr. Nicole Helmke’s vignette, "I Guess We Should Check the QTc," was selected from 27 submissions for platform presentation, and she won third prize. The vignette, crafted with inspiration and mentorship from faculty mentor Dr. Jacob Feigal and input from other Duke Medicine-Psychiatry faculty members, revealed a case of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy precipitated by acute mania. Also, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to combined training and practice, Dr. Nicole Helmke was selected from a field of amazing senior combined residents with the Martin Fenton Award for outstanding resident in a combined training program.
Duke Medicine-Psychiatry PGY2 Dr. Cameron Strong (with faculty mentor Dr. Jacob Feigal) presented a poster on Lazarus Psychosis: New-Onset Hyper-Religious Psychosis with Right-Sided Structural Brain Disease. Duke Med-Psych PGY3 Dr. Alissa Stavig (with former Duke faculty mentor Dr. Virginia O’Brien) presented a poster on Alice in Wonderland Syndrome in the Acute Medical Setting: The Case of Elongating Straws. Duke Medicine-Psychiatry residents Drs. Nicole Helmke, Alissa Stavig, Mai Bedair and Cameron Strong did an outstanding job representing the program and reaching out to medical students at the AMP Residency Fair.
The Durham VA Medical Center’s Alisa Hassinger, formerly of the Duke Psychiatry Emergency Department, collaborated with multidisciplinary faculty members including Medicine-Psychiatry alums Drs. Anne Mathews and Jim Lefler on a submission to the “Innovations in Integrated Care” competition, winning a spot for poster presentation of Factors Associated with Completion of a Veterans Affairs Based Comprehensive Lung Cancer Survivorship Program.
The meeting also offered an opportunity for former trainees and faculty in the Duke Medicine-Psychiatry program to reunite. In attendance were Drs. Susan Padrino, Kellie Clearo, Sarah Rivelli, Kristen Shirey, Jacob Harris, Greg Brown, Amy Newhouse, Sarah Nelson and Duke Psychiatry alums Drs. Norman Litchfield and Ginger Lovingood.