B.A., Stanford University, 2003
M.D., University of Michigan, 2008

I joined the combined program after completing my internship year in psychiatry at a different institution. Throughout my intern year, I was struck by the significant number of patients—both in the inpatient as well as the outpatient setting—who could benefit from an integrated med/psych approach to their care, whether it be providing primary care for patients whose chronic psychiatric illness often overshadows their medical needs, caring for a geriatric inpatient on the psych floor with multiple medical problems, helping patients and families cope emotionally with chronic or acute medical conditions, or improving patient compliance. I was quite impressed by the enthusiasm of the faculty and combined residents at Davis, and by the support offered for combined training by both the internal medicine and the psychiatry departments. The combined faculty are enthusiastic about the overlap between the two fields and the unique perspective afforded by dual training, but also insist that residents obtain solid training in both fields. This emphasis on learning both internal medicine and psychiatry well was quite important to me as I looked at different programs.

Since my medical student days at UC Davis, my experiences with the Departments of Internal Medicine and Psychiatry have been phenomenal.  This institution has strongly supported the Med/Psych Program, and I am continuously impressed by the vast opportunities to integrate both disciplines. The dually-trained faculty members are actively involved in both departments, where they teach combined and categorical residents, as well as interested medical students. 

As a student, I participated in the student-run clinics staffed by Med/Psych physicians, the Medicine and Psychiatry Student Interest Group, and the fourth-year Med/Psych elective (Psych 421).  The elective included work at the Sacramento County Primary Care Clinic, the HIV CARES Clinic, the Sacramento County Mental Health Treatment Center Special Population Unit and the Crisis Unit.  During my fourth year of medical school, I was also fortunate enough to attend the annual national conference held by the Association of Medicine and Psychiatry, where several UC Davis Med/Psych faculty members spoke on their research topics. 

Med/Psych residents are also encouraged to pursue research topics of their own, and thus far, I have been particularly interested in psychosomatic medicine, palliative care, bioethics, geriatrics, and HIV/AIDS medicine.  The training atmosphere here at UC Davis has allowed me to enjoy going to dinner with friends, watching movies, reading books, and visiting all the great sites in northern California, including downtown Sacramento, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and the Bay Area.  I am very excited to be a Med/Psych resident and I welcome those interested to experience it first hand here at UC Davis.

My introduction to medicine-psychiatry may have been a little different than most.  While doing nephrology research I noticed multiple opportunities for how someone with a psychiatry background could get involved.   Whether it be in helping younger patients with compliance issues, counseling the depressed or even extending so far as to  treating the whole family dealing with the stress and lifestyle changes that come about when loved one starts dialysis. It became apparent that being dually trained would allow me to care for my patients in a way I deemed necessary through treating both body and mind.  As a third year medical student I saw further how both of these disciplines intertwined and my interests in the connection between them only grew.  Therefore it became important to me to find a program where I truly felt had an understanding of what it takes to be dually trained.

At UC Davis I feel I have found that understanding.  Whether if ranges from the myriad of dually trained faculty that UC Davis employs or to the dedicated med-pysch clinics and beds that you get to rotate through, UC Davis continued to impress and offer opportunities that not all other programs are able to. I discovered at UC Davis the opportunity to treat a diverse patient population while working in many different environments – such as through VA hospitals, county jail and at the Sacramento County Mental Health Treatment Center Special Population Unit and the Crisis Unit. When I factored in the enthusiasm for the program, stemming not only from the med/psych faculty, but also from both the medicine and psychiatry faculty and how they truly support the idea and the program itself I felt like I had found my fit. 

The UC Davis faculty understands the unique experience of a dually trained intern and has forged a training atmosphere that is fun, interesting and illuminating.  While demanding, the program also allows one ample opportunity to forge friendships with new colleagues on both the medicine and psychiatry disciplines and to experience what Sacramento and Northern California has to offer including such beautiful places as Lake Tahoe and trips to scenic Napa Valley -- an oenophiles dream. As such, UC Davis truly offered me a unique opportunity for training – exactly what I was looking for.

Although the program is fairly new, there is an unparalleled level of enthusiasm and support from both the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry in supporting this unique residency.  There is also a great balance between medicine and psychiatry.  I was impressed with the combined faculty not only as excellent clinicians but also as outstanding teachers and mentors who have a genuine interest in my professional development and career.  Moreover, I know that the diverse training sites will provide a solid clinical background in working with a diverse patient population, ranging from the uninsured and county patients at UC Davis to private patients at Kaiser to forensics patients at the county jail.  I felt right at home as a visiting medical student in my fourth year of medical school, and am now excited to be part of the UC Davis family.