You have come to the right place to find out more about Medicine and Psychiatry combined training!  The Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Internal Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina offer an integrated training program that prepares residents for specialty board eligibility in both Psychiatry and Medicine. The program meets all objectives and guidelines for combined training leading to dual certification established by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (November 1996), and includes the components of our independent Internal Medicine and Psychiatry programs which are fully accredited by their respective Residency Review Committees. The facilities and rotations are the same as those used by the independent programs. All training sites are located within a four-block diameter area to facilitate cohesion among program house staff and faculty.

The program provides residents with instruction and experience in the prevention, detection and treatment of acute and chronic medical and psychiatric illness presenting in both inpatient and ambulatory settings. Availability of faculty from both specialties for consultation during clinical rotations is ample. The level of hospital and faculty commitment to the combined program is excellent and the relationship between the psychiatry and medicine department is collaborative. Residents attend the didactic offerings of the independent programs as well as a monthly educational conference specifically for combined residents.

Clinical assignments expose trainees to the psychiatric and medical problems of patients from adolescence to old age in each discipline.  While there is strong training in bread-and-butter medicine and general psychiatry, residents rotate in multiple subspecialty areas with access to attending physicians who are leading thinkers in their fields. Residents receive close supervision regarding team approaches to the provision of patient care, the socioeconomic aspects of illnesses, and the ethical care of patients. The curriculum incorporates progressive responsibility for patient care, supervision, and teaching of medical students and junior residents.

Continuity of care is practiced in our outpatient medicine clinic, University internal Medicine, which begins during the first year.  Residents develop a panel of approximately 100 patients which they will follow in weekly afternoon clinics and grows to around 200-300 patients by the third year.  In the second year, we begin our continuity psychiatric clinic at the VA, which then alternates with the medicine clinic.  In the middle of the fourth year of training, residents begin full-time psychotherapy year in MUSC resident’s clinic, supervised by both dynamically oriented and CBT-trained clinicians.  Through rotation at MUSC’s Counseling and Psychological Services, residents can get extensive exposure to PhD psychologists with a largely young adult population.  It is also possible to participate in the psychiatry department’s research track to get protected research time and training as well as close mentorship with eminent researchers in the cutting edge of psychiatry. 

MUSC’s Med-Psych curriculum has the flexibility to get broad-based training as well as focus on a particular specialty with ample preparation for private practice, teaching, research, or fellowship.  Opportunities for electives are plentiful in our 5 year residency and you can expect career mentorship tailored to your interests. Med-Psych has a strong presence of combined trained attending physicians on campus both at the VA and at the Institute of Psychiatry (IOP).  We expect each resident to participate in scholarly activity and be conversant with the academic literature as we participate in journal clubs in both disciplines and in our monthly conferences.  The IOP is expanding its Behavioral Medicine clinic into an entire division that will capitalize on Med-Psych residency to expand its consultative and collaborative care model into the various other clinical enterprises of MUSC as more and more research shows interdisciplinary care is more effective at tackling complex medical conditions such as heart disease, obesity, chronic pain, and cirrhosis.  This is an exciting time of growth for MUSC and for Med-Psych as a discipline and we are looking for “true believers” to join our efforts.

Past graduates have are making careers in:

·         Medicine private practice and outpatient psycho-oncologic consultation
·         Med/Psych hospitalist
·         Med/Psych primary care for the underserved
·         Private practice outpatient medicine and community psychiatry
·         Forensic psychiatry
·         Inpatient psychiatry, addiction research and behavioral medicine
·         Medicine hospitalist
·         Psychiatry hospitalist and neuroscience research
·         Sleep Medicine
·         VA Med-Psych
·         Pulmonary/Critical Care

Sample Schedule

Our team of residents 08-09:

Jason Adams
adamsjas@musc.edu
University of Mississippi SOM

Mary Beth Alvarez
Chief Resident
alvarezm@musc.edu
Tulane SOM

Laine Gawthrop
gawthrop@musc.edu
West Virginia University SOM

Diane Augelli
augelli@musc.edu
University of Oklahoma SOM

Rachel Sowards
sowards1@musc.edu
Marshall University SOM

Vanessa Spearman
spearma@musc.edu
Medical College of Georgia

Yevgeniy Gelfand
gelfand1@musc.edu
SUNY Downstate SOM

Temeia Martin
martintd@musc.edu
Howard University SOM

Allison Jordan
aej@musc.edu
UT Southwestern SOM

Cory Walker
crw20@musc.edu
Kirksville COM

Blake Haren, MD
Program Director