Neil Boris, MD
Associate Professor
Tulane University School of Public Health
(also did Infant Mental Health Fellowship)
Why did you choose Brown Triple Board;
… “the combination of the 3 pieces of the program were strong. I did an elective at Bradley on the children’s unit. I spent a lot of time talking to the triple board residents in each division. I felt like they really got it, the triple board thing. My sense from my 4th year medical school elective rotation was that there was real integration. “
Why are the advantages of triple board training?
My training was wonderful! First reason that I am glad I did it is that it has become a very highly regarded program. When I started, no one had ever graduated. Coming from a highly regarded is valuable to your career after finishing residency. Also, during residency, I found that the triple board gave me more opportunities than the single boarded trainees, and that’s really cool. Thirdly, I frankly believe that the typical child psychiatry training is not rational. They don’t get to do enough normal development, they don’t have the experiences to understand the medical issues of child psych patients. I think that some of the communication problems with community pediatrics and child psychiatry reflect this lack of integration in training. I think that training grounded in child health and mental health is much better.
How does TB training influence your practice now?
In many ways. I do child consultation liaison. I just got off the phone with a grandmother of an adolescent who came in to the hospital in DKA and has conduct disorder- hey it’s a triple board case. I feel comfortable working with these complex med-psych cases. I attribute that confidence to the triple board training.
I think TB training made me a better teacher also- again, I understand pediatricians in a way child psychiatrists trained in a classic way almost never do. Going through typical training, they sometimes completely misunderstand how to communicate back to pediatricians and what they are capable of- it’s like a black box to them. Triple boarders can teach child psych fellows about the biological facets of illness and integrate their communication into community pediatrics.
There were also unanticipated positives about triple board training. I originally thought there was too much ICU. But, NICU is a place where I learned to manage families in extreme crisis. Before I did the triple board, I didn’t understand the value of 3 months of ICU and thought it was illogical. Even though I don’t use the content of the NICU training now, it still influences my practice. Learning how to manage the intensity of affect is important in multitude of work settings. I didn’t understand until some years later that the great lessons in doctoring apply to mental health. These lessons were never more clearly etched than in the NICU.
Finally, here I am in the school of public health. I attribute that to the opportunities that triple board opened up. The people who hired me said, “wow” this guy knows child health and behavior. Most of the public health disease states we need to address may have roots in childhood an in behavior.” I’m not sure that a child psychiatrist could have gotten the job. There really are more opportunities for triple boarders.
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