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The APA Board of Trustees voted last month to explore whether APA should establish an affiliate Institute on Research and Education and asked for a report in July.
The recommendation was part of a central office reorganization plan presented by APA Medical Director Steven M. Mirin, M.D., at the Board meeting last month in Washington, D.C.
Three APA offices would be affected by the reorganization: the Office of Economic Affairs, Office of Psychiatric Services, and Office of Research. Mirin also mentioned that he recently established the Office of District Branch and State Society Relations (Psychiatric News, March 20).
Mirin said that the reorganization is necessary because of changing APA priorities, the need to respond effectively to the needs of members, and implementing the evolving strategic plan.
Mirin plans to hire a new director for the Office of Economic Affairs, who will report directly to him and be included in the senior management group.
"My goal is to prepare the office, which I would like to rename the Office of Healthcare Systems and Financing, to play a key role in analyzing and disseminating information on the financing and delivery of mental health and substance abuse care," Mirin stated.
This information will be made available to APA's leadership, district branches, members, and staff so they can advocate more effectively on behalf of APA members and their patients, added Mirin.
The reorganized office also will develop educational programs on issues related to health insurance coverage and reimbursement, managed care, and practice management, as well as products and services to aid psychiatrists in solo practice and organized systems of care, he stated.
Additional activities include establishing linkages with health care systems such as HMO's and Veterans Affairs, trade groups, managed care organizations, private purchasing alliances, and public agencies that fund mental health care.
The office will continue to oversee the Managed Care Help Line and the newsletter Psychiatric Practice and Managed Care and staff the Council on Economic Affairs.
Mirin also proposed that the current Office of Psychiatric Services headed by Deborah Zarin, M.D., an APA deputy medical director and codirector of APA's Office of Research, be renamed the Office of Quality Improvement and Psychiatric Services.
Zarin will continue to share responsibility for the oversight and expansion of APA's Practice Research Network, according to Mirin.
"I would like to work with the chairs of appropriate councils and components to reshape the current OPS into a new office," with these primary goals:
"The consolidation of these activities within one office will improve our ability to respond to the growing demands for information about the effectiveness of psychiatric treatments and the need to influence the expanding array of quality monitoring programs now used in public and private systems of care," Mirin stated.
To maintain APA's leadership role in advocating for and carrying out research, as well as helping young psychiatrists pursue research careers, Mirin recommended that APA establish an affiliate, the Institute for Research and Education.
"I believe we should become a national center for the coordination of health services research across the full range of psychiatric settings including organized systems of care, solo private practice, and academic medical centers."
The institute will continue APA's seeking, obtaining, and distributing research training and career development grants.
"In collaboration with academic departments of psychiatry and schools of public health, we can provide a practicum experience for health services and/or health policy fellows at APA, on Capitol Hill, and in Washington-based federal institutes or agencies," he said. "This effort will provide national visibility for APA as a training ground for the health care leadership of the next century."
Former APA president Joseph T. English, M.D., applauded Mirin's reorganization plan, especially the recommendation for a research institute.
"Having an APA-related institute would be of tremendous advantage to us because it distances our research efforts from our advocacy efforts as a membership organization. As an academic chair, I believe academic departments will be less reluctant to collaborate with APA through such a subsidiary."
Sacks commented that the proposal was mentioned at APA's recent Deans' Advisory Conference in February and received universal support (Psychiatric News, April 3).
Former APA president Mary Jane England, M.D., asked whether there was a model among other professional membership groups for such an institute. Harold Pincus, M.D., an APA deputy medical director and director of APA's Office of Research, responded that the AMA and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors have established similar institutes or foundations.
The Board voted to request that APA's president appoint one or more Trustees to work with Mirin, Pincus, APA's general counsel, and others as appropriate, to explore the desirability and feasibility of establishing such an APA institute and report back to the Board on the matter in July.
Sacks appointed Trustee-at-Large Michelle Riba, M.D., and Vice President and newly elected President-elect Allan Tasman, M.D., for this task.
At Mirin's request, the Board also voted to approve APA's contract with the management consulting firm Booz, Allen, and Hamilton to conduct a three-month study of the desirability and feasibility of continuing APA's Electronic Communications Project. The cost of the study is $184,000.