Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship

The Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship Program is situated within the Montefiore Einstein medical system, affording fellows substantive exposure to consultation-liaison psychiatry and its many specialties. Integral to our program is a commitment to scholarship, research and quality improvement. For the duration of their training, our fellows master the diagnosis and management of the psychiatric aspects of medical illness through hands-on teaching, innovative didactics and personalized supervision.

Our program offers five full-time, one-year fellowship positions. In addition to three adult consultation-liaison track positions, we offer a women’s mental health track and a child and adolescent track for candidates with the requisite training and interests.

Training
Our fellows have the opportunity to serve a diversity of patients in clinical settings where they learn about addiction psychiatry, transplant psychiatry, reproductive psychiatry, rehabilitation psychiatry, psycho-oncology, HIV psychiatry, trans/gender-non binary psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, forensic psychiatry and pain medicine. In addition, fellows can pursue graduate-level training to obtain a Certificate in Bioethics and Medical Humanities through the Einstein-Cardozo Bioethics Graduate Education Program. This robust experience facilitates a wide range of career choices after training.

Montefiore Einstein serves the diverse Bronx population, allowing our fellows a unique learning environment. Our patients vary significantly in terms of ethnicity, age, country of origin and socioeconomic status, as the hospital draws from disadvantaged areas of the Bronx and the more affluent neighboring Westchester, Rockland and Fairfield Counties.

Clinical Rotations 
The primary training sites for fellows are the consultation-liaison psychiatry services at the Moses, Jack D. Weiler and Wakefield Hospitals and their affiliated clinics.

The inpatient and outpatient rotations value teaching and interdisciplinary collaboration. Teaching opportunities and clinical research are available, and the services’ collegial atmosphere allows for substantial supervision and mentoring. We make every effort to accommodate each fellow’s particular clinical or research interests.

All training sites are in the Bronx, except the bioethics seminar, which takes place in Manhattan. Our required rotation sites include:

• Moses Hospital
• Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Health Care Center–a federally qualified health center     
  • Montefiore Einstein Women’s Health Center–Eastchester
• Center for the Aging Brain
• Jack D. Weiler Hospital–Einstein Campus
• Wakefield Hospital

In addition, fellows can pursue graduate-level bioethics training through a yearlong off-campus interdisciplinary bioethics course. This course provides graduates with a certificate in bioethics and credits towards a master’s degree in bioethics. Fellows also participate in departmental quality improvement activities and are encouraged to participate in the National Curriculum in Reproductive Psychiatry.

There is no night or weekend call obligation.

Applicants who have completed child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship training may choose this specialized track. Fellows spend six to nine months focused on the care of medically ill children and adolescents in both inpatient and outpatient settings in the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Einstein (CHAM), named one of the nation’s best children’s hospitals by US News and World Report. Child and adolescent psychiatric consult service staff certified in child psychiatry and consultation-liaison psychiatry supervise all fellows.

The women’s mental health (WMH) track is an elective training opportunity within the one-year American Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited fellowship in consultation-liaison psychiatry at Montefiore Einstein. Fellows in the WMH track will rotate through the inpatient perinatal psychiatry consult service at Jack D. Weiler Hospital and the Montefiore Einstein Women’s Health Center–Eastchester Campus and provide expert reproductive psychiatry consultations to the Bronx Psychiatric Center. These unique clinical experiences will be interdigitated with routine consultation-liaison rotations to provide a yearlong longitudinal experience in women’s mental health.   

The goal of the track is to train excellent consultation-liaison psychiatrists who have expertise in treating women across the reproductive lifecycle, placing special emphasis on the perinatal population. WMH track fellows will develop skills in pre-conception consultations and treating perinatal patients. The Montefiore Einstein WMH track is unique in that we emphasize the intersection of community psychiatry and women’s mental health. We aim to equalize the field of women’s mental health by providing the fellows not only with evidence-based education on psychiatric disorders across the female lifespan but also a curriculum that empowers them to serve as advocates for some of the most vulnerable women in our society—those with severe mental illness.  

In addition to direct patient care, WMH track fellows will participate in a yearlong didactic curriculum, receive abundant supervision and be strongly encouraged to pursue scholarly writing and academic projects under the guidance of our faculty.

As a fellow, you will regularly participate in the following activities:

• Daily bedside rounding with your attending
• Weekly consultation-liaison psychiatry case conference
• Weekly fellows seminar
• Weekly individual supervision with Program Director Dr. Rubiahna Vaughn
• Weekly departmental Grand Rounds
• Weekly reproductive psychiatry case conference 
• Ongoing invitations to various lectures, seminars and conferences

Supervision
Supervision occurs daily, formally in rounds and less formally throughout the day, as the primary attendings are always on-site and available. Supervision is an integral part of each clinic’s activities.

Fellows are encouraged to develop research projects and write case reports or articles based on their clinical interests. They may elect to spend research time at the Department of Psychiatry’s Research Institute at Montefiore and Einstein (PRIME), which focuses on neuropsychiatric research and treatment.

Fellows are also encouraged to submit abstracts for presentation at other national and international meetings.

PGY-5 salary for the 2022-23 academic year will be $98,202 (unlicensed) or $104,753 (licensed). As New York State Office of Mental Health employees, fellows received a generous benefits package, including a choice of health insurance plans, four weeks of vacation and paid holidays. In addition to four weeks of vacation annually, fellows may attend five days of conference meetings.

New York State provides medical coverage to help you pay for most healthcare expenses you and your eligible family members may incur. Your medical choices cover a variety of medical services and supplies in and out of the hospital. Please contact Alba Amaya at 929-348-4033 for comprehensive and up-to-date information about the benefit options.

Individuals accepted into the consultation-liaison psychiatry training program must have completed an ACGME-accredited American or Canadian residency in psychiatry. Applicants applying for the Child Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship must have completed child psychiatry training and met the requirements above. Applicants must be U.S. residents or citizens.

If you want to become a Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellow at Montefiore Einstein, you can submit your application through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) or the Common Application. Applications are due September 30th. Applications should include the following documents:

• Curriculum vitae (CV)
• Completed common application form provided by the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
• Three letters of reference, including a letter from the residency training director
• Personal statement
• Medical and/or graduate school transcripts
• Copy of state licensure
• United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) status
• United States citizenship or residency

Send all documents to Program Coordinator Danielle Hicks at djames@montefiore.org. All qualified applicants will be invited for an interview with the program director and faculty. Interviews begin in October and typically finish by mid-November. This year’s interviews will be conducted virtually. 

If you have questions about our fellowship, please contact Dr. Rubiahna Vaughn at ruvaughn@montefire.org or call 718-904-3161. 

For more information about the application process, please contact Danielle Hicks at djames@montefiore.org.