The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics sponsors a combined Family Medicine-Psychiatry training program through the Departments of Family Medicine and Psychiatry.  The five-year program is approved by both the American Board of Family Medicine and the American board of Psychiatry and Neurology and leads to board eligibility in both specialties.  The program recruits two first-year positions yearly. 

The combined training in Family Medicine and Psychiatry provides physicians with broad-based training in both specialties and specific expertise in such areas as geriatrics/geriatric psychiatry, substance and alcohol abuse, diagnosis and treatment of depression, delirium, eating disorders, panic disorders and neurotic and somatizing behavior. Additionally, senior residents in this program gain experience serving as psychiatric consultants to primary care physicians. Residents are invited to participate in collaborative research projects undertaken by the two departments. It is hoped that the graduates of this program will provide medical and psychiatric services to undeserved populations or will become leaders in medical education and train physicians with expertise in both medicine and psychiatry. The goals for the residents in the combined program are to:

• Develop expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness in primary care populations
• Improve communication skills with patients and families
• Improve management of medical problems in the chronically mentally ill living within the community
• Gain skills as psychiatric consults to medical physicians

Program Director Dr. Alison Abreu is the first graduate of the combined program and has a joint appointment in the Departments of Family Medicine and Psychiatry since 2003.   She is board certified in both Family Medicine and Psychiatry, and a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Psychiatry Association.

The five-year curriculum includes 30 months Family Medicine and 30 months Psychiatry rotations with the resident spending six months in each specialty annually. 

First Year Rotations

• Introduction to Family Medicine – 1 month
• Family Medicine Inpatient – 1 month
• Emergency Medicine – 1 month
• Obstetrics – 1 month
• Pediatric Outpatient Clinic – 1 month
• Pediatric NICU – 1 month
• Psychiatry Inpatient – 5 months
• Medicine/Psychiatry Inpatient – 1 month

Second Year Rotations

• Family Medicine Inpatient – 1 month
• Cardiology – 1 month
• Chronic Disease Management – 1 month
• Community Medicine – 1 month
• Pediatrics Inpatient – 1 month
• Surgery – 1 month
• Electroconvulsive Therapy – 1 month
• Neurology Clinic –  2 months
• Psychiatry Consult Service – 1 month
• Psychiatry Inpatient – 1 month
• Psychiatry Night Float– 1 month

Third Year Rotations

• Family Medicine Inpatient – 1 month
• Family Practice Center – 2 weeks
• Family Medicine Float – 2 weeks
• Family Medicine Newborn & Maternal Care – 1 month
• Intensive Care – 1 month
• Obstetrics – 1 month
• Orthopedics/Rheumatology Clinics – 1 month
• Outpatient Psychiatry – 6 months

Fourth Year Rotations

• Outpatient Psychiatry – 6 months
• Family Medicine Inpatient – 1 month
• Family Practice Center – 6 weeks
• Family Medicine Float – 2 weeks
• Dermatology Clinic – 2 weeks
• Gynecology Clinic – 1 month
• Ophthalmology Clinic – 2 weeks
• Otolaryngology Clinic – 2 weeks
• Urology Clinic – 2 weeks

Fifth Year Rotations

• Family Medicine Inpatient – 1 month
• Family Practice Center – 2 months
• Sports Medicine – 2 weeks
• Family Medicine Electives – 2 ½ months
• Child Psychiatry – 2 months
• IMPACT – 1 month
• Psychiatry Consult Service – 1 month
• Psychiatry Electives – 2 months