Great Meeting in a Great City!

Philadelphia is the host city of APA’s 2020 Annual Meeting. This great city is the birthplace of not only our nation but also our proud professional organization. With its enticing variety of historic attractions and high culture, unique neighborhoods, and world-class restaurants, Philadelphia is a fitting setting for the Annual Meeting and an excellent opportunity it provides for learning.

The theme of “Advancing Quality: Challenges and Opportunities” will be reflected throughout the 500-plus sessions. As you can see by paging through this issue of Psychiatric News, there are too many outstanding sessions to describe them all in this article.

The official kick-off of the meeting occurs on Saturday, April 26, at the Opening Session, where Dr. Patrice Harris will address attendees. Dr. Harris is the 174th president of the AMA, the first African American woman to hold this position, and a member and former trustee of APA. On Monday afternoon, Dr. Richard Kogan will present the William C. Menninger Memorial Lecture at the Convocation of Distinguished Fellows. He is a Juilliard-trained pianist who will discuss the life of Tchaikovsky and play selected pieces by the composer. These sessions are just two highlights of a meeting packed with incredible sessions.

As clinicians, we strive for quality care based on the application of evidence-based knowledge. Yet measurement of quality has emerged as a challenge, especially in the delivery of efficient care. Dr. Thomas Lee, an internist and professor at Harvard Medical School, has expertise in the development of integrated, value-based health systems and the impact of these changes on patient and physician function. He will present a Frontiers of Science lecture titled “What Patients Want,” which will focus on the goals of health care, what patients want from their health care professionals, and how clinicians can reliably meet patient needs while reducing clinician burnout.

Among the participants in the Presidential Session titled “Mind the Gap: Bridging Research and Policy Into Practice” will be Dr. Patrick Conway, former chief medical officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Patrick Kennedy, former member of Congress and long-time mental health advocate. They will provide examples of how clinical and research evidence can drive policy change to improve care for patients.

In a unique format, Drs. Carol Alter, Glenda Wrenn Gordon, Margorie Balfour, and Robert Roca will present a case conference on quality outcome measurement titled “Are We Making a Difference: Measuring Patient Outcomes and the Value of Our Work.”

Each year there is a series of award lectures in the Distinguished Psychiatrist and Frontiers of Science formats. The distinguished psychiatrists for 2020 are Drs. Joshua Gordon (“The NIMH: Programs, Priorities, and Plans”); one of the authors of this article, Philip Muskin (“A Journey of Caring Collaboration”); Carol North (“Disaster Mental Health Epidemiology and Nosology: Perspectives From Three Decades of Research”); Maryland Pao (“What’s Your Career Trajectory? One Woman’s Path to Work Integration Into Life”); and Paul Summergrad (“Beyond Consultation-Liaison: The Boundaries of Medical Psychiatry”).

Presenting Frontiers of Science lectures are Drs. Josef Dalmau (“The Role of Synaptic Autoantibodies in Psychiatric Disease”); Kevin Ochsner and Kamran Khodakhah (“Cerebellar Modulation of the Reward Circuitry and Social Behavior); and Mary Jeanne Kreek, a true pioneer of addiction medicine (“History and Current Status of Methadone and Buprenorphine/Naloxone Maintenance Treatment and Neurobiological and Genetic Research of Specific Addictive Diseases”). NIAAA will present a dozen sessions including one by its director, Dr. George Koob. NIDA and SAMHSA will also present several sessions.

In a special two-part session for trainees and early career psychiatrists, Dr. Jeremy Lazarus will lead a panel to provide an overview of the different types of private practice, the pros and cons of being in private practice, and how to decide whether private practice is what the attendee really wants. The second session will discuss malpractice/liability insurance for private practice; how to negotiate contracts; self-pay versus insurance pay; documentation; coding and billing; and HIPAA and OSHA compliance.

Chef David Bouley will present “The Living Pantry,” a “how to” via a video he produced especially for our meeting. He will then join Drs. Drew Ramsey and Uma Naidoo and one of the authors of this article (Philip Muskin) to discuss the role of food, healthy eating, and the impact of dietary lifestyle on our patients (and us too).

Dr. Kimberly Yonkers will receive the Adolf Meyer Award for her decades of research on women’s mental health. She will present the lecture “Exploration of How to Care for Pregnant Women With Psychiatric Illness.” Dr. Jonathan Metzl, winner of the Benjamin Rush Award, will present “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms”.

There will be two Advances in Psychiatry sessions in which experts will discuss the latest research in key areas. Dr. Hebert Pardes will lead the session “Youth Anxiety: An Emerging Epidemic?” It will be interactive, encouraging active involvement of the audience. The other session will be led by Dr. Maria Oquendo on “Deaths of Despair or Brain Conditions?” In addtion to Dr. Oquendo, an internationally recognized suicide researcher, the presenters are Drs. Nora Volkow and Christine Moutier.

Vibrant operates national and local crisis hotlines. Kimberly Williams from Vibrant will chair a session on the role of crisis lines in the prevention of suicide and data on their effectiveness. The plan for a national three-digit hotline number will be discussed as well.

Dr. Bharat Vatwani will present one of the two international lectures. His talk, “Reaching Out to the Unreached: The Wandering Mentally Ill Destitute on the Streets of India,” will focus on how homeless people with mental illness can be rescued from the streets and rehabilitated comprehensively in a custodial care program that combines a compassionate approach to socialization, occupational engagement, and professional medical intervention. Dr. Vatwani’s eloquence and storytelling bring audiences to tears, but he ends on a hopeful note. Audiences often give him a standing ovation. As we struggle with homelessness in this country, Dr. Vatwani shows us that we can make a difference.

Dr. Mark Solms will present the other international lecture, “The Basic Emotional Circuitry of the Brain: Implications for Psychiatry.” He will describe the basic emotional circuitry of the human brain and how each circuit relates to various forms of psychopathology. Implications for treatment and drug development will also be briefly discussed, as will implications for psychiatric nosology.

We’re sure you’ll agree with us that this meeting will be one you don’t want to miss. It’s fitting that so much cutting-edge science be presented in the city where APA was born 175 years ago. We’ve come a long way! ■