A Residents View of the Annual Meeting
By Edwina Zettler, M.D.

Dr. Edwina Zettler attended this year's Annual APA meeting in San Francisco, as part of her duties for CORF (see Bulletin Board page 15)

This was my first APA meeting. I was a little overwhelmed by the enormity of the event. The city was literally overtaken by about 20,000 psychiatrists. Each day provided an impressive host of activities. Since residents do not require CME credits, I did not pay to attend any of the CME courses, but I had still had a plethora of seminars from which to choose.

The APA provided a resident symposium series which included several breakfasts, lunches, and meetings with key speakers such as APA President-Elect Marcia Goin, M.D., who spoke on Borderline Personality Disorder and Glen Gabbard, M.D., who addressed family issues in psychiatry. I also enjoyed the breakfast, "Meet the Experts: Sunny Side Up", which addressed main topics in the field of psychiatry in a small group discussion format. The resident symposium series was very nice because it offered the chance to meet fellow residents from across the country, and the lectures were generally informal and offered the opportunity for group participation and discussion. Meeting some of the "big name" psychiatrists in our field was also a unique opportunity. My only criticism is that the APA underestimated the number of residents attending the annual meeting, and therefore the resident events were often over-crowded and residents were turned away on several occasions.

I highly recommend the APA-endorsed Psychiatrists' Program, which offered a day of presentations on topics such as how to launch a successful private practice, risk management and professional liability insurance. Some of the information on medical billing was too specific for a person who does not yet run a private practice; however, I did collect some excellent information on general issues in private practice and a HIPAA Help Manual CD-ROM that I believe will be helpful in the future. Apparently, this lecture series is run annually.

In addition to the educational events, I rounded off my APA experience by exploring San Francisco one afternoon and with an evening spent attending a Bristol-Myers Squibb charity event that supported The Road to Imagination, a theater group for the mentally ill. Overall, I truly enjoyed my first APA Annual meeting and hope to attend many more in the future.

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