The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics sponsors a combined Family Medicine-Psychiatry training program through the Departments of Family Medicine and Psychiatry.

Established in 1998, the University of Iowa was an early leader in combined residency training. Combined program residents work with faculty who have training in family medicine-psychiatry as well as internal medicine-psychiatry throughout their training. Residents in the University of Iowa Internal Medicine-Psychiatry Residency Program provide opportunities for networking and support with our residents pursuing a career in combined practice.

Focused integrated training includes inpatient rotation on the Medicine-Psychiatry Unit and a longitudinal outpatient experience in the Counseling and Health Promotions Clinic (CHPS), a primary care mental health clinic where residents provide psychiatric consultation to the Family Medicine Clinic as well as continuity care in psychiatric medication management and psychotherapy.

Other features of our program include:

• Family Medicine-Psychiatry Journal Club
• Family Medicine-Psychiatry Noon Conference
• Fourth year medical student elective
  

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 annually.

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 management of medical problems in the chronically mentally ill living within the community
• Gain skills as psychiatric consults to medical physicians
• Participate in the integration of medicine and psychiatry in our future health care system