Tom Chun, MD, FAAP
Pediatric Emergency Medicine
NIH-Funded researcher
Warren Alpert Medical School At Brown University
What struck me when I was looking at programs was how well integrated and coordinated the triple board residency was with each of the three component residencies at Brown. I got the sense that all three departments worked well with and respected each other and that the triple board residents were valued and held in high esteem by each of the departments and by their peers. I was also impressed by how academically strong each of the three individual departments were. Having gone through the residency and now being a faculty member, I'm happy to say that all these impressions were and still are true.
I think it's truly a unique form of training. Being able to look at "both sides" of a patient, both the medical and psychological, is invaluable. From a patient care perspective, understanding the medical implications of psychiatric illness as well as the psychiatric sequelae of medical illness, to me is holistic medicine at its best. Triple board training also uniquely prepares one for peer interactions and consultations. As a pediatrician, I know how to communicate with psychiatrists, what services and information are valuable to them, how to access their system, etc. The converse situation is equally true.
I am using my triple board training in multiple ways. Despite my clinical work being in a pediatric emergency department, I feel that I use my triple board training every day. Despite my abbreviated interactions with patients and families, I use my psychiatric skills in eliciting a history as well as forging a therapeutic relationship with kids and their caregivers. Psychiatric patients are common visitors to the emergency department, so I use my psychiatric training is very relevant in caring for these patients as well as collaborating with mental health consultants.
Academically, I'm involved in the training and education of both the pediatric residents as well as the child psychiatry fellows. Additionally, I'm actively involved in teaching emergency medicine residents about psychiatric issues. I'm a reviewer for two emergency medicine journals, which I'm glad to say get a fair number of manuscripts dealing with psychiatric issues. Lastly, I have a NIH K-award, which focuses on psychiatric interventions in the emergency department setting. The primary mentor of my grant is Tony Spirito, a child psychologist here at Brown. Tony, like many others here at Brown, is interested in the interface between medicine and psychiatry. He is a fantastic mentor and our current working relationship is largely the result of my having worked with him during my triple board training.