Bernanrdino Vaccaro, MD

Biography

My responsibilities have been primarily clinical, supervisory, and educational. As Chief Resident on an inpatient unit, I reviewed, accepted, and assigned admissions, conducted daily walk and work rounds, led two multidisciplinary treatment teams, managed milieu around patient, staff, and resident issues, and coordinated teaching conferences. I served as Administrative Fellow on the Medical Psychiatry Service at Brigham and Women’s Hospital that evaluates 2,700 patients annually providing 8000 psychiatric consultation and liaison visits to medical, surgical, cardiac, obstetric and gynecology services for patients with medical psychiatric needs.

As an Attending on the Psychiatry Consult Service at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, I routinely shared in the supervision of 3-4 psychiatry residents rotating on the Consult Service. I supervised 2 residents annually for the psychopharmacology service and provided inpatient teaching conferences for the inpatient psychiatry units. As Director of Neuropsychiatry, I supervised the neuropsychiatry fellow and the psychiatric care of the patients in the Behavioral Neurology Unit at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

In March 2000, I became a full-time attending and Associate Director of the Medical Psychiatry Service at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Clinically where I provided psychiatric consultations to medical and surgical inpatients from throughout the hospital, and also serve as the psychiatric consultant to the Burn and Trauma unit and the Surgical Epilepsy program. I had significant educational, supervisory and administrative responsibilities for the three PGY V fellows, four PGY III residents, the PGY IV chief resident, and medical students rotating on the Service. For 8 years I directed the Medical Psychiatry course, a year-long required didactic seminar for the 15 Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program (HLPRTP) PGY III residents. I served as Course Director for the BWH Medical Psychiatry Service’s ACGME 7 accredited Psychosomatic Medicine Fellowship, responsible for all didactic training for our 5 post-residency fellows.

From July 2006 through October 2007 I served as the Director of Resident Training in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at BWH, coordinating resident service activities, schedules, supervision, and evaluations on the Medical Psychiatry Service.

In October 2007, I moved to the Boston VA Healthcare and became Medical Director of the Primary Care Behavioral Health Program where we offer immediate access to psychiatric
consultation, assessment, brief treatment and referral to appropriate long term specialty care. We are in the process of building this into a teaching service with medical students, residents and
fellows who will rotate through our service.

In May 2009 I returned to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as a staff Psychiatrist on the Consultation and Liaison Service and Emergency Service. In May 2011 I became the Director
of the Service. This is a Tertiary Care Hospital teaching service that trains Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residents in Consultation Liaison Psychiatry. As Director of the Service, I am
responsible for 4 FTE attending psychiatrists, and 3 PGY III residents, PGYII residents that rotate through the service. In addition, there are four advanced practice nurses who work on the
service, two covering the emergency room and two who work with nursing staff throughout the hospital to help manage difficult patients.

Beginning in July 2019, I have served as the Clinical Director at the Cognitive Neurology Service at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and serve as the Psychiatric Consultant to the
Center for Violence Prevention and Recovery. Provided Neuropsychiatric care to support several Neurology Service lines including Movement Disorders, Epilepsy, Traumatic Brain injury, and
the general cognitive neurology group.

With regards to research activities, I have served as the monitoring psychiatrist for a study of the application of active or sham rTMS in patients receiving Zoloft . I screened patients for the
study to determine their eligibility for the study, monitored their medications, assessed them for safety in emergent situations of worsening depression, and administered the HAM D and other
monitoring instruments throughout the study period. I have collaborated with Drs. Gerald Weinhouse, Selwyn Rogers, and Aaron Nelson on a study of the prevention of delirium in highrisk
populations undergoing abdominal aortic aneurysm bypass surgery.