Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship

Overview

Our fellowship program is composed of:

• Inpatient consultation via direct patient care

• Advanced neuropsychiatric training

• Development of trainees’ identities as physicians, psychiatric specialists/experts, and as generative members of an academic professional community

• Supervised subspecialty inpatient consultation training in burns and trauma, oncology, lung/liver/heart solid organ transplantation (including listing committee experience), and obstetrics-gynecology

• Quality and Safety experience regarding focusing on the increasing rates of Type II violence enacted against care providers in medical settings

• On site outpatient experiences, including:

  • A specialty clinic selective in either HIV or oncology
  • An individually tailored specialty elective clinic
  • Experiences in an innovative clinic for the assessment and treatment of functional neurological disorders

• Extensive seminar and supervisory experiences

• As a fellow, you will have one hour of weekly supervision with fellowship director Nicholas Kontos, MD, as well as weekly group walk rounds with emeritus director Greg Fricchione, MD, daily attending rounds, and a thrice weekly one-hour process rounds with members of the fellowship faculty.

• Two didactic hours per week are set aside strictly for fellows. A breadth of talented, accomplished, and devoted faculty allows us to place special emphasis on neuropsychiatry while also covering all core topics in consultation-liaison psychiatry. In addition, there are special modules on psychodynamic theory and application, and both experience-based discussions (from departmental leaders and graduates of our program currently leading departments in local hospitals) and a guided reading series focused on leadership. A monthly 1.5 hour discussion-based seminar on “Professionalism, Physicianhood and Psychiatric Practice,” anchored by highly curated readings and led by Drs Kontos and Bains, further expresses our commitment to the development of your professional identity and ethical rigor.

  • Seminars and other experiences that overlap with residents on rotation include: 1) Psychosomatics Seminar (trainee-driven talks with a faculty discussant; fellows each present twice); 2) “Big Rounds” (topic-driven and free-form discussions and deep dive case presentations); 3) Fellows lead an allotment of “Big Rounds” and a circumscribed allotment of resident walk rounds.

Philosophical pillars of the fellowship include:

• A medical model of psychiatry that other physicians can relate to and which pays special heed to neuropsychiatry but does not depend on biology for its legitimacy.
• Rigor of both content and form of thought. We want you to know what you are doing, as well as why and how you are doing it (also, and perhaps especially, when you are choosing not to “do”).
• Maintaining practical and existential perspective. This allows us to both appreciate the gravity of patients’ plights and our work, and to get over ourselves. Our goals are to appreciate absurdity, relate authentically with patients and each other, and to have a good time while doing hard work.

Requirements

We will accept the Common Application and participate in ERAS. Candidates also have the option of applying outside of ERAS if this will allow them to avoid the fee(s). We will also accept the following materials as a complete application:

• CV
• Three letters of recommendation, one of which must be from your training director.
• A letter of interest (shorter than a personal statement, longer than a greeting; a brief “this is who I am, why I’m interested in CL, and why I’m interested in a fellowship at Mass General”).

Curriculum

We promote the philosophy that in both fellowship training and in the career of consultation psychiatric care that service is education. We frame our curriculum in terms of patient-facing and non-patient-facing activities with supervision in both aspects of learning.

Patient-facing Curriculum

We are a fellowship that skews toward inpatient consultation. The year is divided into thirds based on who your primary attending(s) are and which subspecialty consultations you are partially focused on. All of our faculty are board certified in consultation-liaison psychiatry. The scheduled curriculum never has you working with your primary attending (or attending set of two) for less than one month at a time.

You will have one two-hour outpatient clinic per week in either an oncology or HIV clinic. An additional two-hour elective clinic is also available.

Non-patient-facing Curriculum

Seminars, supervision, and group rounding activities as noted above.

• Our most recent Core Seminar schedule
• The most recent Professionalism, Physicianhood, and Psychiatric Practice Seminar schedule
• Topics most recently presented by fellows in the Psychosomatics Seminar Psychosomatic Conference Fellows

How to Apply

Materials can be sent without using ERAS to Mary Horn (mhorn2@mgh.harvard.edu). In this case, letters of recommendation must be hand-signed and sent by the writers or a designee from your training office if your program has one.

We welcome applicants with the following VISA status(es): J-1 or H1B.

Applications are accepted (email and ERAS) starting July 2nd. The deadline to submit applications is September 30th.

Fellowship and Faculty Contacts

Nicholas Kontos, MD
Director of Fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
nkontos@mgh.harvard.edu
Areas of Interest: Ethics, Neuropsychiatry, Illness Behaviors

Linda Herrera Santos, MD, PhD
Associate Program Director, Fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
Director of the Hispanic Psychiatry Clinic, Mass General
Attending Psychiatrist, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Mass General
Attending Psychiatrist, Acute Psychiatric Services, Mass
General
Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
lherrerasantos@mgh.harvard.edu
Areas of Interest: Hispanic Psychiatry, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry

Gregory L. Fricchione, MD
Associate Chief of Psychiatry
Director, Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine
Director, Chester M. Pierce, MD, Division of Global Psychiatry
Co-Director, McCance Center for Brain Health Department of Psychiatry, Mass General
Mind Body Medicine Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Emeritus Director, Fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital
Areas of Interest: Catatonia Pathophysiology and Treatment, Neuropsychiatry, Mind Body Medicine, Global Psychiatry

Felicia A. Smith, MD
Chief, Division of Psychiatry in Medicine, Mass General Brigham
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Areas of Interest: Emergency Psychiatry, Leadership

Caitlin Adams, MD
Attending Psychiatrist, Mass General Hospital - APS, Psycho Oncology, Embedded Psychiatrist in the Division of Cognitive Behavioral Neurology
Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Areas of Interest: Neuropsychiatry, Functional Neurological Disorder, Psychiatric Aspects of Neurological Disease

Ashika Bains, MD, MS
Attending Psychiatrist, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Transplant Psychiatry, ID Psychiatry, Mass General
Associate Program Director, MGH/McLead Psychiatry Residency Program
Director of Resident Outpatient Clinic
Co-Leader Clinical Educator Program
Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Areas of Interest: C/L psychiatry, Emergency psychiatry, ID Care, Medical Education

Scott Beach, MD
Attending, Mass General Psychiatric Consultation Service
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Areas of Interest: QTc Prolongation and Psychiatric Medications, Catatonia and Related Syndromes, Deception Syndromes, COVID-19

Donna Greenberg, MD
Director, Harvard Medical School Psychiatry Clerkship
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Areas of Interest: Cancer Psychiatry, Medical Education

Mila Grossman, MD
Attending Psychiatrist, Consultation-Liaison Service, Acute Psychiatry Service, and Center for Women’s Mental Health
Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Areas of Interest: Women’s Mental Health, Medical Education, Emergency Psychiatry

Charlotte Hogan, MD
Director of Inpatient Women’s Mental Health Consultation Liaison Psychiatry, Mass General
Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Areas of Interest: Reproductive Psychiatry, General CL Psychiatry, Emergency Psychiatry, and Medical Education

Ana Ivkovic, MD
Director, Transplant Psychiatry, Mass General
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Areas of Interest: Transplant Psychiatry

Charles Masaki, MD, PhD
Attending, Mass General Consult Psychiatry Service
Instructor in Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Areas of Interest: Psychosocial Oncology, Transplant Psychiatry, Translational Research

Mladen Nisavic, MD
Director, Burns/Trauma Psychiatry Service
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Areas of Interest: C/L Psychiatry, Trauma/Surgical Care, Addiction Psychiatry

Emily Sorg, MD
Clinical Director, Center for Psychiatric Oncology & Behavioral Sciences
Psychiatrist, Avery D. Weisman Psychiatry Consultation Service
Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Areas of interest: Cancer Psychiatry, Demoralization, Care at End-of-Life, Psychotherapy, and Medical Education

Mary Horn
Fellowship Coordinator
Mhorn2@mgh.harvard.edu