January 1, 1999

By Pedro Ruiz, M.D.
Chair
APA Scientific Program Committee

Still savoring the memories of APA's very successful 1998 annual meeting in Toronto last May, the Scientific Program Committee is working hard to put together another outstanding meeting, which will be held May 15 to 20 in the nation's capital.

The planning for APA's 152nd annual meeting is now in full force under the able leadership of APA President Rodrigo A. Muņoz, M.D., and the combined efforts of the Scientific Program Committee and APA staff. The theme that Dr. Muņoz selected for the meeting, "The Clinician," offers a timely opportunity to focus on the core issues of the clinical practice of psychiatry from the perspectives of education, service, and science. For this year's meeting the Scientific Program Committee received hundreds of outstanding proposals for sessions, permitting APA to offer the latest and most useful information in these essential areas.

Perhaps more than ever before, the members of the Scientific Program Committee and APA staff are making it a priority to involve our most outstanding women, underrepresented and ethnic minority members, international medical graduates, and psychiatric colleagues from abroad in every aspect of the 1999 scientific program. Dr. Muņoz and APA's Board of Trustees gave us the mandate for such involvement, and we are committed to implementing this initiative, since committee members, APA staff, and I in particular fully endorse it.

In planning for the 1999 annual meeting, we have also decided to maintain a close collaboration with the federal institutes and agencies. Our collaboration with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at last year's meeting proved to be extremely successful, and the resulting sessions were highly regarded by meeting attendees. This year we are working closely with the leadership of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), in particular its director, Steven E. Hyman, M.D., to ensure NIMH's strong presence in the program. APA Deputy Medical Director Harold A. Pincus, M.D., has greatly helped the committee in this area.

We have also decided to focus additional attention on the educational needs of psychiatry residents and young psychiatrists. Thus, many of the annual meeting presentations will reflect their educational needs.

In recent years the annual meeting has attracted several thousand psychiatrists from abroad. This has happened in part as a result of the efforts made by APA's Office of International Affairs and the Council on International Affairs. In fact, APA's annual meeting has become one of the most successful vehicles to provide cutting-edge scientific information to our colleagues from abroad, which in turn helps them to deliver high-quality psychiatric services to patients throughout the world. Our APA leadership and membership should be proud of this new and important international role that our Association has so successfully undertaken. The Scientific Program Committee is planning to offer a series of scientific presentations tailored to the educational needs of our international psychiatric colleagues at the 1999 meeting.

Finally, we are reaching out and securing input from as many APA members as possible and are proud of our efforts to meet the educational needs of our APA colleagues.

The 1999 annual meeting should provide a congenial atmosphere to learn from the scientific presentations and to enjoy the many cultural, educational, entertainment, and culinary opportunities that our nation's capital offers. I look forward to seeing you in May for our 152nd annual meeting.

More information on the 1999 Annual Meeting