Minutes of the Alcohol Medical Scholars Program Conference Call

Wednesday, January 16, 2002

Present on the line were Drs. Madonick, Rukstalis, Villier, Pieri, Williams, Guschwan, Levy, Akerele, Londino, Welsh, Schuckit, and Tapert.

The meeting began with a reminder that our next face-to-face meeting is in Del Mar, California (a suburb of San Diego) with arrival by no later than 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24^th. The meeting will be at the L’Auberge Del Mar (a fabulous hotel), and will end at noon on Saturday, April 27^th. At this meeting all Junior Scholars will be expected to present their lectures, and all Junior and Senior Scholars will give an update of their progress at their university.

We next turned to a tentative date for the October 2002 meeting. The specific date is not at all certain, and will depend on a variety of other factors, but the first choice appears to be Wednesday, October 16^th through Saturday, October 19^th, and the second choice, Wednesday, October 23^rd through Saturday, October 26^th. The venue of the meeting has not yet been established, but it should be decided upon soon.

The majority of the discussion was to help Junior Scholars finish their lectures. Woody Levy has pretty much completed his, and everyone else is working hard and making progress. Marc reminded everyone of several points which have been covered in individual letters to each of the Junior Scholars. These include:

1. The need to work closely with their Senior Scholar mentor.

2. The importance of carefully studying the lectures posted on the website.

3. The necessity of carefully following the outline format exemplified on the website.

4. The importance of giving enough information so that a teacher in any medical school anywhere in the world could actually deliver the lecture after studying the notes and slides for a few hours. At the same time, avoiding using too much detail, as well as avoiding using complete sentences in a way that might look like a paper for publication or the chapter for a book.

5. The importance of including key references within the text (the average lecture will have somewhere around 20 references, and not every comment is to be referenced—only the important ones).

6. The need to carefully develop the slides following the slide format already presented on the website.

7. The need to follow the specific reference format of the American Psychiatric Association (as listed in the Journal of the American Psychiatric Association) when making the reference list.

The group then turned to a report by Junior and Senior Scholars regarding some of their major accomplishments and potential road blocks as they try to expand alcohol and drug education at their medical schools. All of the scholars agreed they were making progress. None felt there were any major roadblocks getting in their way, and all agreed that the major problem is finding enough time to do what they want to do. Marc reminded the scholars to carefully study their “wish list” as stated at the Hawaii meeting, so they can gauge whether they are making progress on the things they had highlighted for themselves. He reminded everyone of the relevance of evaluating the level of alcohol and drug education to medical students and residents currently available at their school, the possibility of incorporating a new elective on alcohol and drugs, and the fact that the website offers scholars lectures they might wish to use as part of their efforts. Each scholar reviewed their own areas of accomplishments, and each will present a much more detailed overview of what has gone on during our meeting in Del Mar in April. Minutes of those accomplishments and challenges will be given in detail at that time.

Several specific events are worthy of mention. Marianne Guschwan, Susan Tapert and four additional scholars will be giving a workshop on “How to Give a Lecture” at the American Psychiatric Association meeting; Donna Londino has been appointed to the Family Council for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry — focusing on substance use disorders among youth; Chris Welsh has been named the Chair of the Medical Student Committee for the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry; and Evaristo Akerele has recently been appointed Associate Residency Training Director for Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School.

The Conference Call ended with a reminder to scholars to make suggestions regarding new scholars to begin in August of 2002, an announcement that a poster regarding AMSP is being proposed for the Research Society on Alcoholism meeting in July, 2002 in San Francisco, and a reminder that all presentations at the April meeting should be made in PowerPoint if at all possible.

Marc A. Schuckit, M.D.

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