Buoyed by memories of APA’s very successful 1999 annual meeting in Washington, D.C., last May, we are already hard at work organizing this year’s meeting in Chicago, which will be held May 13 to 18.

Our efforts in planning APA’s 153rd Annual Meeting are moving ahead rapidly and efficiently under the able and strong leadership of APA President Allan Tasman, M.D., and the Scientific Program Committee. Dr. Tasman’s presidential theme for the meeting, " The Doctor-Patient Relationship," offers opportunities to address the most relevant and critical issues related to the clinical practice of psychiatry, with a strong focus on treatment and service delivery. A large number of excellent proposals addressing this theme have already been submitted for consideration. Without question, we should be able to offer our membership the most scientifically advanced knowledge in this essential area.

The Scientific Program Committee is looking forward to the involvement in scientific sessions of highly qualified presenters who represent the diversity of backgrounds found in the field of psychiatry. Dr. Tasman and the Board of Trustees had proactively instructed the committee to create a program in which the presenters reflect the face of psychiatry, and we are fully committed to implementing this policy. In fact, I believe that one of APA’s major strengths is the diversity of its membership, and the annual meeting gives us an opportunity to be reminded of that strength.

As in previous years, we decided to again collaborate with the federal institutes and agencies in planning this year’s meeting. APA’s collaboration with the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the 1998 meeting in Toronto and with the National Institute of Mental Health at the 1999 meeting in Washington, D.C., proved to be very successful for the profession and highly welcomed by meeting attendees. Therefore, this year we are closely working with the leadership of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and, in particular, its director, Enoch Gordis, M.D., to develop cutting-edge scientific activities of benefit to APA members. APA’s Council on Addiction Psychiatry, under the leadership of Sheldon I. Miller, M.D., has been most helpful to the Scientific Program Committee in achieving our goals in this area.

Also, the committee and its staff have decided to give priority this year to the scientific needs of medical students, psychiatry residents and fellows, and early career psychiatrists. Thus, numerous scientific presentations will be directed to meet their specific educational needs.

In recent years, our annual meeting has been extremely successful in attracting several thousands of psychiatrist colleagues from abroad, and the program will include a number of scientific presentations tailored to their educational and scientific needs. Moreover, we are pleased that many of our international colleagues will be enriching the scientific program by participating as presenters.

We are confident that APA’s first annual meeting of the new millennium will offer a valuable opportunity to meet new colleagues, learn and share scientific information, and enjoy the many social, cultural, artistic, and culinary opportunities that Chicago has to offer in the spring.

As we finalize our plans for Chicago, however, we welcome your input. We are very much aware of the importance of planning a meeting that is responsive to the diverse educational and scientific needs of our APA membership. Please send your comments to me via e-mail at pruiz@msi.uth.tmc.edu.

I look forward to seeing you in Chicago in May.