Challenges to academic psychiatry

Economic constraints, effects of retrenchments in federal health policy, and increased competition for resources are challenging all sectors of academic medicine. Departments of psychiatry are at particular risk during this era for reasons including the lack of a sound research and research training base in many psychiatry departments; the small number of students entering the field and implications therein for the availability of residency slots in psychiatry; and patterns of allocating resources within academic medical centers which, combined with biases in reimbursement policy toward cognitively based specialties, threaten the economic strength of psychiatric departments. A conceptual model based on marketing principles is proposed to aid in identifying and capitalizing on the unique strengths of the field.