Who are our graduates?

Dr. Kim Stoner - The University of Iowa, 2004

I am currently an Assistant Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee with a primary appointment in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and a secondary appointment in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine. I am the first physician at MCW to have a joint appointment between these two departments, but was able to negotiate what I consider “my ideal job” because of my dual board certification. I am a clinician educator hospitalist, and staff inpatient medicine consults three months a year and inpatient psychiatry consults three months a year. This allows me to see a variety of patients, have protected time for teaching activities with medical students and residents, and take time away from the hospital during the summer so that I can compete on a water ski team.

Completing a combined internal medicine/psychiatry residency prepared me to manage patients with comorbid conditions and made me a valuable resource for colleagues. Medicine consults at my hospital are most frequently requested by orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, neurologists and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation physicians. I provide care for many geriatric orthopedic patients who are at high risk for delirium during the perioperative period, and patients with spinal cord injuries or other neurologic problems. In addition to the formal consults, it is rare for a week to go by without a curbside request from a primary care physician in my division seeking counsel on a patient with a psychiatric problem who either refuses to see a psychiatrist, or has difficulty accessing mental health care because of insurance issues. When I see hospitalized patients as a psychiatric consultant there is no question that my additional understanding of medically complex patients enables me to provide the best possible care. Patients with psychiatric conditions often do not comply with treatments for their chronic medical problems and present frequently to the healthcare system with complications. I believe the ability to provide comprehensive care for patients with comorbid psychiatric and medical disease will become increasingly important as the population ages.

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