Dear Colleague, Professional organizations are a vital means of networking with others in your field and laying the groundwork for future opportunities. One such professional organization in geriatric psychiatry, the International College of Geriatric Psychoneuropharmacology (ICGP), held its 5th annual meeting November 2-5, 2005 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Topics covered at the meeting covered a wide range of research into the nature, course, treatment, and prevention of late-life brain disorders. The meeting ended with Leon Thal's Distinguished Scientist address entitled “Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease: A Personal Perspective.” The scientific program was organized under the leadership of Drs. Alastair Flint and John O'Brien. Information about the 2006 ICGP meeting can be found here. Networking within your institution is also important; however, in a large university, junior faculty members may feel lost in the crowd. In this month's "Ask a Mentor" column, Dr. Streim and Dr. Reynolds advise a junior faculty member in this situation. We welcome your questions on any aspect of career development or related issues. To submit a question, click here. Sincerely, Stephen J. Bartels, MD, MS; Martha L. Bruce, PhD, MPH; Maureen Halpain, MS; Barry D. Lebowitz, PhD; Charles F. Reynolds III, MD; Gwenn Smith, PhD; Joel E. Streim, MD; Jürgen Unützer, MD, MPH, MA

MedicalUpdates
A survey of e-mentoring among New Zealand midwives.
Stewart S, Wootton R.
J Telemed Telecare. 2005;11 Suppl 2:90-2.
A survey of 1577 New Zealand midwives found a third identified geographical isolation as a barrier to mentorship. The use of e-mentoring may allow greater choice of mentors.

Early career professional development issues for military academic psychiatrists.
Warner CH, Bobo WV, Flynn J.
Acad Psychiatry. 2005 Winter;29(5):437-42.
In this article, the authors present a junior faculty development model organized around four overlapping domains: mentorship, scholarship, research, and career planning/development.

Academic research record-keeping: best practices for individuals, group leaders, and institutions.
Schreier AA, Wilson K, Resnik D.
Acad Med. 2006 Jan;81(1):42-7.
The authors present best practices for research record-keeping for academic research groups, based on review and analysis of a number of sources, that may be especially useful in training the next generation of researchers.

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MostViewedPresentations
General
A Reviewer's Perspective on Grant Applications
Barry D. Lebowitz, PhD
What do reviewers look for in grant applications? In this presentation, Dr. Lebowitz shares his knowledge gained by 30 years of experience at the NIMH.

Geriatric
Junior Faculty Scholars Program
Charles F. Reynolds III, MD
Dr. Reynolds describes how the Junior Faculty Scholars (JFS) program offers graduates of postdoctoral fellowship programs an opportunity to continue to have part-time support as assistant professors for purposes of continuing pilot work and preparing K award applications.


MostReadArticles  
General
Mentorship in academic general internal medicine: Results of a survey of mentors.
Luckhaupt SE, Chin MH, Mangione CM, Phillips RS, Bell D, Leonard AC, Tsevat J.
J Gen Intern Med. 2005 Nov;20(11):1014-8. We conducted a web-based survey of mentors, fellowship directors, and NIH K24 grant awardees to capture their experiences with mentoring, including compensation for mentorship, multiple mentees, comentorship, and long-distance mentorship.

Geriatric
Making the case for caregiver research in geriatric psychiatry.
Vitaliano PP, Katon W, Unützer J.
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2005 Oct;13(10):834-43.
In this article, the authors argue that caregiver research is not only relevant to the geriatric mental health community, but it is especially important to geriatric psychiatry.


InTheNews
Get the Credit You Deserve
GradPSYCH, January 2006
While graduate students often have relatively less power and authority than their collaborators, they can do much to ensure they get the credit they deserve on publications such as journal articles and conference papers.

NCES Study on College Faculty Shows Continued Reliance on Non-Tenured, Part-Time Instructors
ACENet, January 4, 2006
A new report from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) found that almost half of all instructional faculty members at colleges, universities, and community colleges across the country are part-time and non-tenured.

A 10-Step Plan for Better Postdoc Training
TheScientist.com, January 2006
A focus group formed at the 2004 Teaching Survival Skills and Ethics conference has produced 10 recommendations for establishing the postdoc as a trainee in a transitory state between predoctoral training and permanent employment.

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