April 2, 1999

APA's 1999 annual meeting in Washington, D.C., will give psychiatrists a glimpse of tomorrow in a special exhibit called the "Office of the Future."

The centerpiece of the exhibit, which will be housed in the APA Resource Center in the Exhibit Hall, will be a bank of 12 computers in which meeting goers can enter their thoughts about the psychiatry of tomorrow, whether in the area of clinical practice, research, education, health care delivery, or administration. Their comments will be used to develop a more elaborate exhibit-perhaps one showing a prototype of tomorrow's psychiatric office-for APA's annual meeting in the year 2000.

"The purpose of our APA exhibit is to challenge and inspire our membership to take a leap into our future," said Ronnie S. Stangler, M.D., chair of APA's Subcommittee on Office of the Future and a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Telecommunications for the Annual Meeting. "Medicine is in the throes of a scientific and technological revolution, akin to the era of antibiotic introduction for treatment of infection. As psychiatrists understand and embrace the potential of technology, we position ourselves to shape our professional future. We can define clinical applications, alter the form of lifelong education, and effect political processes."

Here are some questions that psychiatrists may want to answer at the exhibit: How will medical records evolve as video and audio are included? How can patient privacy be preserved as database capabilities explode? What kinds of psychiatric treatments will be available in interactive three dimensional virtual worlds? How will knowledge of the human genome affect the course of psychiatric disorders?

Information technology is already changing the way Americans think and work, Stangler noted. "This past week while Bill Gates and Martha Stewart both visited MIT to seal technology predictions in a virtual time capsule, Malcolm Forbes announced his presidential bid, not in a news conference, but on the Internet."

The exhibit is supported by a grant from Merck & Co. Inc.

Stangler welcomes members' ideas concerning the "Office of the Future" exhibit. She can be contacted at stangler@u.washington.edu.