APA's 100% Club Picks Up Another Member Program

The psychiatry residency training program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC) is the latest residency program to have all of its psychiatry residents become members of APA. It is affiliated with the University of California at Los Angeles, School of Medicine.

It joins the ranks of an exclusive organization within APA: the 100% Club. This club was established to encourage residents throughout the United States and Canada to join APA and to do so with other trainees in their programs, according to Deborah Hales, M.D., director of APA's Division of Education and Career Development.

A photo of each program that joins the 100% Club is turned into a poster and mailed to every medical school in the United States and Canada to encourage medical students to join APA. In addition, programs in the 100% Club receive a major textbook from American Psychiatric Publishing Inc. and a free online subscription to Focus: The Journal of Lifelong Learningg for each year that all of their residents are APA members.

“The Cedars-Sinai Psychiatry Residency Program is committed to training residents in the biopsychosocial model as contemporary psychiatrists and clinical leaders,” said Waguih W. IsHak, M.D., the program director.“ The training program values the five themes of intellectual curiosity, hard work, strong camaraderie, individual attention, and quality of life. There is a special focus on integrating psychopharmacology and psychotherapy skills in a multidisciplinary setting, with emphasis on cultural sensitivity and evidence-based psychiatry. CSMC residents also complete subspecialty rotations—child and adolescent, geriatric, addiction, and research psychiatry—during the second year of training to identify unique areas of interest and spark interest in future career possibilities. The residents then go on to regularly present on these special topics at APA's annual meetings. They are regularly awarded national fellowships and scholarships, which contribute significantly to their professional growth through exposure to nationally known mentors. The Cedars-Sinai clinical programs and training activities are complemented by expanding research activities in a unique setting: a large, nonprofit, tertiary-care community medical center with world-class clinical and research programs that address the needs of a very diverse patient population.”

More information about the 100% Club is available from Nancy Delanoche of APA's Division of Education and Career Development at (703) 907-8635. Programs that are interested in signing up all their residents should also contact Delanoche.