Originally from New York, Joseph M. Schwartz, MD, the 57th President of the MPS, came to Maryland to enter college at Johns Hopkins in 1983, and he has been here ever since. After full-time work at Hopkins that included being the Director of the Psychiatric Ambulatory Clinic, Dr. Schwartz became the Clinical Director of the Psychiatry Department at Howard County General Hospital on July 1, 2004.

When we talked in June, I asked him how he first developed his interest in psychiatry. He told me, “In a roundabout way. My intention was to become a neurosurgeon because I was pretty sure that that was my career direction. Neurology happened to be paired with psychiatry and ophthalmology. I ended up working with Kostas Lyketsos. I had a great time so I did a sub-internship, which I arranged through Phillip Slavney.”

I asked him which teachers influenced him the most during his training. "Paul McHugh is probably the most important. A lot of times when I'm dealing with sticky political issues I remember things that he's told me--how to put your patients and your staff first and take care of them and how to develop a team--have an idea about what you want to accomplish, so that you're not just running something, but you're actually trying to develop a vision." He told me that the most valuable preparation for running the Psychiatry department at Howard County was "the clinical training at Hopkins--going in there with the confidence that I could take care of the patients."

So far, he has been pleased with his new job, even though he had to start with almost no orientation to his new responsibilities. “The big surprise when I got there," he said, "was that one of my psychiatrists was out with a medical problem the day I arrived, so I had to jump in. I was on the wards, seeing patients, doing consults and learning things as I needed to learn them. It worked out.” He has plans to improve the hospital, too. "By bringing me on, Humanim, which is the company that contracts to provide the psychiatric services for the hospital, made it possible to integrate the three service lines that are there--the inpatient service, the emergency department, and the consult-liaison service. This means that the same psychiatrists are covering all three services. I'm working on expanding services in the hospital. There is a certificate of need to run a partial hospitalization program that isn’t being used.”

He continues to pursue his non-administrative interests, too. He wants to learn about addiction issues such as buprenorphine and is considering doing some child and adolescent research jointly with the department at Hopkins.

He held several important positions for the MPS before becoming President. He chaired the Residents and Fellows Committee and then the Legislative Committee. He served on the Council and was President of the Pro-Bono Counseling Project. Most recently, he served as Treasurer and then President-Elect. He also was active in the APA Assembly, representing the Early Career Psychiatrists. I asked him what he enjoyed most. He commented that he enjoyed “trying to look out for us and our patients" and he referred to "getting together with colleagues to work on projects and to try to do some good."

Dr. Schwartz has ambitious plans to develop Howard County General’s facility. He intends to develop special facilities for emergency psychiatric patients to avoid their being placed in a medical-surgical bed in the emergency department. He also plans to expand the addictions treatments that the department and the hospital provide. Now that he has become involved with treating adolescents, he would like to ensure that they get the services most helpful to them. He is aware that "there is a trend for departments to cut back on their programs and I think that there's a need that, hopefully, I'll be able to fill."

During his Presidency, he plans to focus on ways to increase member participation (not just membership numbers) and on ways to strengthen our alliance with our “sister” district branch, the Washington Psychiatric Society.

I'm sure that the MPS will be well-served by Dr. Schwartz during his Presidency, given his rich background and his willingness to learn and teach.