Brooklyn Resident Competition Develops Young Researchers
Abstract
The competition, founded and coordinated for 31 years by APA President-elect Ramaswamy Viswanathan, M.D., Dr.Med.Sc., promotes resident involvement with APA and the Brooklyn district branch, while helping resident scholars advance their careers as psychiatric researchers.
In March 1992, Ramaswamy Viswanathan, M.D., Dr.Med.Sc., then president of the Brooklyn Psychiatric Society (BPS), organized and moderated the first annual Brooklyn Psychiatric Society (BPS) Resident Scholarly Presentations Competition.
APA Deputy Medical Director and Chief of Research Nitin Gogtay, M.D. (left), served as a judge in the resident scholarly presentations competition. With him are Kusum Viswanathan, M.D., chief medical officer at Brookdale University Medical Center, and APA President-elect Ramaswamy Viswanathan, M.D., Dr.Med.Sc.
This year’s competition 31 years later, which took place in April at Interfaith Medical Center in central Brooklyn, marked his last year coordinating the event. Viswanathan, who is president-elect of APA and professor and interim chair of psychiatry at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, is turning over coordination of the event to Maria Bodic, M.D., a psychiatrist at Maimonides Medical Center.
The competition brings together resident scholars from psychiatric training programs at four Brooklyn hospitals—Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, Maimonides Medical Center, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, and Interfaith Medical Center. The residents present poster and oral presentations on a variety of research projects, with winners selected by a panel of research experts (Brooklyn District Branch Honors Residents for Outstanding Research).
Kelvin Oke, M.D., a resident at Interfaith Medical Center, received first prize in the poster competition for his research project titled “Adolescent Crimes: Association of Multiple Substance Use With Arrests Among Adolescents.”
When he originated the competition, Viswanathan and his wife, Kusum Viswanathan, M.D., a pediatric hematologist-oncologist who is now the chief medical officer at Brookdale, donated what he called “a modest amount of money” to pay for some of the expenses related to the competition over the years.
“At the time we originated it, it was an innovative program and the first such program to be organized by a district branch of APA,” he told Psychiatric News. “It has helped strengthen our residents’ involvement with APA and promoted their professional development.”
Kunal Gandhi, M.D. (left), received first prize for his oral presentation titled “Is Cannabis a Gateway Drug? A Retrospective Analysis of American Adolescents.” With him are Tolu Olupona, M.D., president of the Brooklyn Psychiatric Society, and APA President-elect Ramaswamy Viswanathan, M.D., Dr.Med.Sc.
The judges were Nitin Gogtay, M.D., APA deputy medical director and chief of research; Aparna Dole, M.D., a clinical instructor in psychiatry at New York University Grossman School of Medicine; and Jose Vito, M.D., a clinical professor of psychiatry at NYU Langone Health. Vito is also past president of the New York County Psychiatric Society.
“The BPS Resident Scholarly Presentations Competition is an outstanding way for young psychiatrist researchers to hone their skills at gathering and analyzing data on topics relevant to psychiatric practice and patient care and presenting their findings in a professional setting,” Gogtay said. “I urge these young researchers and all residents interested in research to join APA and avail themselves of the mentorship and resources offered by APA’s Division of Research.”
Following opening remarks by LaRay Brown, CEO of One Brooklyn Health, Gogtay spoke about APA and the work of the Division of Research, especially around DSM, PsychPRO (APA’s mental health registry), and the APA Research Consortium.
Brooklyn Psychiatric Society President Tolu Olupona, M.D., director of residency training at Interfaith Medical Center, credited Viswanathan and Linda Majowka, BPS executive director, for shepherding the program over many years.
The competition “is a great opportunity for psychiatry residents in Brooklyn to showcase their scholarly activity to their peers and other faculty from psychiatry residency programs in Brooklyn,” she told Psychiatric News. “Residents and faculty also network with colleagues from other programs during the event, and the activity helps residents in training to build their CV as they grow in their academic careers.” ■
