Program Structure

Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship Education Program 

A twelve-month specialized education program in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry will comprise of didactics and weekly case conferences, led by core and adjunct teaching faculty. Some of the covered topics include:

• • Neuropsychiatry
  • Transplant Psychiatry
  • Psycho-oncology
  • Addiction Psychiatry
  • Medical Ethics
  • Journal Club

• • Professional Development and Scholarship: Fellows are expected to engage in scholarly activity during their fellowship. Potential activities include: curriculum development, quality improvement, academic manuscript authorship, and formalized research (qualitative or quantitative). Our fellows will have the opportunity to design and carry out their own projects or join ongoing projects, with guidance and mentorship from our faculty.

• • Supervision: Fellows participate in regular supervision with the Program Director, Dr. Dara Wilensky, and with the Chair of the department, Dr. David Henderson. Fellows also participate in regular supervision with attendings who specialize in areas of CL Psychiatry relevant to the fellows’ inpatient and outpatient practice.

Training Sites

The Consult-Liaison fellow will spend a total of six consecutive months at Boston Medical Center and six consecutive months at the VA Boston Healthcare System – West Roxbury.

At both sites, fellows are valued educators and take a leadership role in the training and supervision of psychiatry residents as well as BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine students during their psychiatry clerkships.

Inpatient Psychiatry Consultation
Boston Medical Center
Site Mentors: Dara Wilensky, MD (Program Director); Isidore Berenbaum, MD; B. Jeanne Horner, MD; Kevin Donnelly-Boylen, MD; Kaila Rudolph, MD; Sofia Vivoni Corominas, MD; Ashley Nieves-Archibald, MD

BMC is a private, non-profit 547 bed academic medical center that provides both primary and tertiary care to an ethnically diverse patient population (40% White, 39% African American, 12% Hispanic, and 2% Asian). The psychiatric consultation service responded to 2,000 new consultation requests in the last year, which came from all medical and surgical specialties including the intensive care units, hematology-oncology, OB-GYN, dialysis, and neurology. The consultation service has active liaison relationships with the intensive care units, oncology, the amyloid and stem cell transplant programs, dialysis and renal transplantation, geriatrics, cardiac rehabilitation, and neurology. In addition to the inpatient services, the Boston Medical Center has a large Primary Care Clinic (67,000 visits/year), an active Family Medicine Service (50,000 outpatient visits/year), and a busy Obstetrics clinic (2800 deliveries/year) which serve as the sites for collaborative care.

Inpatient Psychiatry Consultation
VA Boston Health System: West Roxbury Campus
Site Mentors:  Erik Levinsohn, MD (Site Director); Larkin Kao, MD; Bernardino Vaccaro, MD; Talya Shahal, MD; Abtin Shahanaghi, MD

VA Boston serves as the major tertiary and surgical referral center for all other VA facilities in New England and offers comprehensive specters of clinical services to the veterans of Eastern and Central Massachusetts. The West Roxbury Campus is the primary medical center for veterans of Massachusetts and its consultation-liaison service is an integral part of the healthcare services provided there. It serves as a training site for both the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and the Harvard Medical School.

Clinical Duties and Sample Schedule

Elective and Liaison Opportunities

Interested fellows have the opportunity to participate in electives in Research, Clinical Care, or Liaison. This allows the fellow to spend time either on additional research activities, the development of a clinical liaison or to focus on additional clinical care. The liaison experience allows the fellow to form a strong relationship with a specific team and cultivate an area of niche expertise. One hour a week of supervision will be provided which will focus on their elective activity.

Scholarly/Research Activities

Fellow are expected to engage in scholarly activity during their fellowship. Potential activities include: curriculum development, quality improvement, academic manuscript authorship, and formalized research (qualitative or quantitative). Our fellows will have the opportunity to design and carry out their own projects or join ongoing projects, with guidance and mentorship from our faculty.