Hello. I'm Dr Stephen Strakowski, talking with you from the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. We're continuing our series on rebranding psychiatry and the four-step process, which is really five steps, as you'll remember.
The first step, zero, as I call it, is we recognize that we have a brand problem and we own it, which we discussed initially. We then talked in step 1 about defining ourselves better—that psychiatry is a medical specialty that studies and treats disturbances in brain function that predominantly affect behavior or behavioral brain disorders, and then we frame those in what we can provide.
Step 2 was placing ourselves into context of the rest of medicine, that we're working at the top of our licenses as physicians, not invading the space of psychologists, social workers, or other people's jobs. Meanwhile, we're also embedding ourselves in the rest of medicine and the practices of medicine as well as their societies, taking our place as a critical part and subspecialty of medical care.
That's how we're described—that our job is simply pushing pills...
Today, we're going to talk about the third step, which I call understanding treatments. Next time, we'll talk about demanding that our organizations more clearly market what we do, and that includes us.
COMMENTARY
Psychiatrists, Do We Understand Our Treatments?
Stephen M. Strakowski, MD
DisclosuresJanuary 03, 2019
Hello. I'm Dr Stephen Strakowski, talking with you from the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. We're continuing our series on rebranding psychiatry and the four-step process, which is really five steps, as you'll remember.
The first step, zero, as I call it, is we recognize that we have a brand problem and we own it, which we discussed initially. We then talked in step 1 about defining ourselves better—that psychiatry is a medical specialty that studies and treats disturbances in brain function that predominantly affect behavior or behavioral brain disorders, and then we frame those in what we can provide.
Step 2 was placing ourselves into context of the rest of medicine, that we're working at the top of our licenses as physicians, not invading the space of psychologists, social workers, or other people's jobs. Meanwhile, we're also embedding ourselves in the rest of medicine and the practices of medicine as well as their societies, taking our place as a critical part and subspecialty of medical care.
Today, we're going to talk about the third step, which I call understanding treatments. Next time, we'll talk about demanding that our organizations more clearly market what we do, and that includes us.
Medscape Psychiatry © 2019 WebMD, LLC
Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.
Cite this: Stephen M. Strakowski. Psychiatrists, Do We Understand Our Treatments? - Medscape - Jan 03, 2019.
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Authors and Disclosures
Author(s)
Stephen M. Strakowski, MD
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Psychology, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine; Senior Vice President, Strategy and Transformation, University of Cincinnati Health, Cincinnati, Ohio
Disclosure: Stephen M. Strakowski, MD, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
Serve(d) as a director, officer, partner, employee, advisor, consultant, or trustee for: Roche; Procter & Gamble; Novartis; Sunovion
Received income in an amount equal to or greater than $250 from: Roche; Procter & Gamble; Novartis; Sunovion; Oxford University Press