Dear colleague:
I would like to take this opportunity to most enthusiastically support the candidacy of Bart Blinder, MD, PhD, to the position of APA
President-Elect.
For 20 years now I have been the Founding and current Chief Editor of Molecular Psychiatry (Nature Publishing Group, http://www.nature.com/mp/),
which has been ranked as the top journal in Psychiatry for the last five years – our Impact Factor is 15.1. I am also Founding Chief Editor of
Translational Psychiatry (http://www.nature.com/tp/, Impact Factor = 4.36) and The Pharmacogenomics Journal (http://www.nature.com/tpj/, Impact
Factor = 5.5), all from the Nature Publishing Group. I trained and worked for over 25 years in the USA with positions such as Assistant Professor at
Yale, Unit Chief at NIMH, Professor and Vice-Chair of Psychiatry at UCLA and Miller Professor, Chairman and Associate Dean at University of Miami.
Five years ago I moved to Australia, where I am now Deputy Director of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Head of Mind &
Brain (Psychiatry and Neuroscience) and Strategic Professor of Psychiatry at Flinders University in Adelaide. I am a Fellow of the American
Psychiatric Association, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. I am also
Visiting Professor at two European universities (Sorbonne Paris Cité in France and Minho in Portugal). My work in research, academic medicine,
administration and clinical psychiatry worldwide, has given me the opportunity to deeply understand our field from multiple perspectives,
nationally within the USA, as well as internationally. Despite immense progress such as parity and affordable health insurance, we still face
immense challenges. Stigma is a reality for our profession and for our patients. Our treatments are based on science that is 30-60 years old.
Despite a revolution in neuroscience, absolutely nothing discovered in the last 30 years has made its way into routine clinical care of psychiatric
patients. Both our psychotherapies and our pharmacology are conceptually old and in need of rapid advancement. Our reimbursements are low and
psychiatry in general tends to be outsourced from the great new medical centers of the USA because it brings so little revenue. Exactly ten years
ago I wrote an editorial entitled “A Leadership Crisis in American Psychiatry,” which in my opinion is as timely now as it was in 2004 (see
attached pdf – scroll al the way down). However, while we urgently need to advance psychiatry, it is critical that we maintain our roots and
principles.
In this context, it is very refreshing and exciting to support Bart Blinder, MD, PhD, as APA -President Elect. I have known Bart for many
years years, having worked with him at multiple APA committees. Bart is one of the rare individuals who has had rigorous medical, research, and
clinical training in child and adult psychiatry, with full psychoanalytic training, which he has utilized to enhance clinical practice and to
develop a bridge between the mind and the brain. Bart is extraordinarily supportive of research and clinical advancement of our field, while
preserving and strengthening the human side of psychiatric care. He has been a leader in child and adult psychiatry, in the clinical sector and in
academia, as well as in the military (Air Force). Bart has had for four decades positions of leadership in our societies at the local (Orange
County), state (California Psychiatric Association, Executive Council), and nation levels (APA Assembly: Area 6 Representative, California,
2010-2014, among other roles). He has also trained countless colleagues during his productive career for the last forty years in Southern
California, at the University of California, Irvine.
More details on Bart Blinder can be found at the following website:
In my 30 years in psychiatry I have not yet encountered a person who is more well-rounded, balanced, competent in so many diverse areas of
psychiatry, and so committed to advancing our profession, including higher rates of reimbursement leading to true parity. Moreover, his personal
attributes make Bart an ideal APA President-Elect; he is inclusive, friendly, personable, and approachable. The APA and our profession would
greatly benefit from having Bart Blinder, MD, PhD, as the next APA President-Elect.
Please take the initiative to vote when you receive the APA e-mail voting invitation and consider joining me in voting for Bart Blinder, whose
experience and expertise are exactly what the APA needs. Voting begins on January 2 and ends on February 2, 2015. Please vote early. Remember, every
vote counts!
With best wishes of a happy and productive 2015,
Julio
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Professor Julio Licinio, MD, FRANZCP
Deputy Director, Translational Medicine
Head, Mind and Brain Theme
South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute
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Strategic Professor of Psychiatry
School of Medicine, Flinders University