Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship
The Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship Program at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The program is created for graduates of ACGME-accredited psychiatry residencies who seek advanced education and training in psychosomatic medicine and who seek to develop a leadership role in the delivery of integrated health care in the inpatient and the outpatient setting. Training takes place across two clinical sites, The University of Colorado Hospital and Denver Health. These hospital systems serve different patient populations and descriptions can be found elsewhere on this website. Our residency and fellowships have a strong emphasis on excellent teaching skills for medical student and residents.
Goals of the fellowship:
- You will develop expertise in the basics of psychosomatic medicine.
- You can choose between several elective tracks.
- Women’s Behavioral Health Track.
- Integrated community-based care programs
- Neurology (DBS and movement disorder clinic, epilepsy clinic and treatment of non-epileptic seizures).
- Organ Transplant
- Family-oriented care.
The Women’s Behavioral Health Track teaches the specifics of caring for women across the life cycle. Fellows will rotate through medical specialties such as adolescent medicine, OBGYN, and oncology. The curriculum is available on request.
Each fellow is expected to complete a scholarly project that results in a poster presentation or a paper for journal submission.
Click here to meet our faculty.
Looking forward to meeting with you,
Erica K. Rapp, MD
Program Director
The fellowship year is divided into six month blocks, with one half of the year spent at University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) and one half spent at Denver Health Medical Center (DHMC). Both sites have robust inpatient C/L services as well as a variety of subspecialty experiences available.
University of Colorado Hospital
UCH is the region’s foremost tertiary care center. It offers a wide variety of specialty services with national reputations, including Pulmonology, Orthopedics, Neurology, Neurosurgery and Geriatric Medicine. Its Burn and Frostbite Center was the first in the Rocky Mountain region to be certified by the American Burn Association and serves patients from throughout the region.
The UCH site offers a wide variety of elective experiences, and fellows are encouraged to tailor their elective choices to suit their individual interests and career goals. During the first five months of their UCH rotation, fellows spend approximately 1/2 of their time on the inpatient C/L service and the remainder in electives and academic time. The sixth month of their rotation is their junior attending month, during which they run the C/L service and are responsible for the leadership of the service and supervision of the PGY2 residents and medical students rotating with us. Throughout the six months, fellows see patients in the Psychiatric Consultation for the Medically Complex (PCMC) clinic, a longitudinal clinic where they can follow patients from the C/L service as well as evaluate new patients with a wide range of presenting problems. Fellows also have the option of participating in the clinic’s Coping with Chronic Illness group, a 10-week group experience designed and supervised by Dr Thant, a fellowship graduate.
Below are some of the most popular electives we currently offer. Electives are ½ day per week, unless otherwise noted.
Nonepileptic Seizure Clinic – This clinic is a collaboration between the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, providing short term (up to 6 months) care for patients with NES. Fellows see individual patients and co-lead either the psychoeducation group (with Neurology providers) or the psychodynamic group (with Psychiatry providers). Family groups are also offered intermittently (once every 1-2 months).
Huntington's Care Clinic – This multidisciplinary clinic includes Neurology, Psychiatry, Social Work, Spiritual Care, Pharmacy, and Nursing. It is part of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) Center of Excellence at the University of Colorado and takes place one afternoon per month.
Transplant psychiatry – Fellows evaluate prospective liver and kidney donors and participate in committee meetings. This elective includes instruction in the administration and interpretation of neuropsychological testing.
Integrated Transgender Clinic – This clinic is a collaboration between Psychiatry, Endocrinology, and General Surgery. Fellows spend two afternoons per month evaluating transitioning patients.
Women’s Behavioral Health – There are several options for fellows’ involvement in this service. These include integrated care in a women’s health / primary care clinic, consultation to an outpatient Gynecology service, and placement in a Reproductive Psychiatry practice.
Neuro-Palliative Clinic – Fellows work with a neurologist to evaluate patients in various stages of neurologic illness seeking palliative interventions. This multidisciplinary clinic also includes Social Work and Spiritual Care.
Geriatric Medicine – Fellows evaluate patients on UCH’s Acute Care for the Elderly (ACE) unit, the outpatient Seniors Clinic, and may participate in evaluations of patients in nursing homes if desired. (2-week block)
Inpatient Palliative Care – Fellows join the inpatient palliative care consult service, which includes Palliative Care attendings and fellows along with a wide variety of trainees from other specialties and ancillary services including music therapists, art therapists, and massage therapists.
We will also work to arrange elective experiences in fellows’ areas of interest. Our fellows have done electives in HIV Psychiatry, Emergency Psychiatry, Sleep Medicine, Addiction Medicine, Ethics, and Education.
Below are two examples of fellows’ UCH schedules:
Fellow #1:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
| AM | Transplant clinic | Psychiatric Consultation for the Medically Complex (PCMC) clinic | Sleep clinic (1x/mo) or Inpatient C/L | Inpatient C/L | Academic time & didactics |
| PM | Perinatal mood disorders clinic | Inpatient C/L | Inpatient C/L | Inpatient C/L | Neuro-Palliative Clinic
|
Inpatient Geriatric Medicine: 2 weeks
Inpatient Palliative Care: 2 weeks
Junior C/L attending: 1 month
Fellow #2:
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | |
| AM | Inpatient C/L | Psychiatric Consultation for the Medically Complex (PCMC) clinic | Inpatient C/L | Nonepileptic Seizure clinic | Academic time & didactics |
| PM | Huntington's Care Clinic (1x/mo) or Inpatient C/L | Transplant clinic | Inpatient C/L | Inpatient C/L | Integrated Transgender clinic (2x/mo) or Inpatient C/L |
Inpatient Palliative Care: 2 weeks
Junior C/L attending: 1 month
Denver Health Medical Center
DHMC is Colorado’s primary safety-net hospital and sees approximately 1/3 of Denver’s population annually.
Rotations at Denver Health include:
- Inpatient C/L service: 3 months
- ACUTE Center for Eating Disorders: 1 month
- Addiction / Women’s Health: 1 month
- Acute Rehabilitation Unit: 1 month
- Integrated Care: longitudinal
More information about our Denver Health program is coming soon!
*All fellowship positions are funded and paid at a PGY-5 level.
UCH Faculty
Faculty Member | Clinical & Research Interests |
Erica (Kirsten) Rapp, MD Program Director C/L attending Consulting Psychiatrist, Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) Center of Excellence at University of Colorado | Medical education Inpatient C/L Neurodegenerative and movement disorders |
Thida Thant, MD Director, University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) C/L Service C/L attending Director, Psychiatric Consultation for the Medically Complex (PCMC) Clinic Collaborative care psychiatrist, Internal Medicine UCH C/L medical student and resident site director | Chronic medical illness Group therapy for medical illness Cannabis Alternative models of care delivery Collaborative care Medical education Inpatient C/L |
Chris Dobblestein, MD Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine Attending for C/L, PCMC, and General Internal Medicine (GIM) clinic Director, inpatient proactive consultations | Proactive C/L Medical care of patients with severe mental illness Somatic symptom disorders Innovative care delivery |
Ali Chadderdon , PsyD C/L psychologist | Pain management Hypnosis |
DHMC Faculty
| Faculty Member | Clinical & Research Interests |
Ken Novoa, MD Associate Program Director Director, inpatient C/L service | |
Yingying Rezmovits, MD, MBA C/L Attending | |
Helena Winston, MD C/L Attending | |
Thom Dunn, PhD C/L Psychologist EMT | |
Liz Lowdermilk, MD Director, Integrated Care Services |
We only accept PGY-5 applications through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS).
All applications must include the following:
- Original graduate transcript(s), when applicable
- Original medical school transcript(s)
- Original Dean's Letter (MSPE)
- Certified copy of medical school diploma
- Copy of psychiatry residency completion certificate, when applicable
- Documentation of post-graduate residency completed elsewhere
- Copies of state medical license(s), DEA license, ABPN certification, when applicable
- Documentation of ECFMG certification, when applicable
- Documentation of status, for international applicants
- Curriculum Vitae
- Personal Statement
- Three professional letters of recommendation
- A formal letter from the current Program Director outlining rotations completed and anticipated to be completed.
- After completion of the PGY-4 year, summation of training letter listing all completed experiences and certifying completion of training from the Program Director
- Documentation of successful passing scores on USMLE parts 1, 2, and 3 (within no more than two attempts)
Applicants are responsible for requesting all supporting documentation above.
All fellowship positions are funded and paid at a PGY-5 level.
Completion of an ACGME accredited psychiatry residency program that qualifies an applicant to sit for the ABPN Psychiatry Board and completion of all USMLE Steps or COMLEX Parts are the basic requirements for application. Additionally, residents are required to hold an active Colorado physician license and DEA license. Upon formal acceptance to the program, application for licensure must be initiated so that residents are licensed before they begin the program.
To ensure that the process for selecting residents is consistent with guidelines established by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the University of Colorado Denver Graduate Medical Education Committee (GME), and to be compliant with University policies, appropriate Federal and State statutes and regulations, this program has the following eligibility requirements.
1. Applicants must provide documentation of the following:
- Graduation from a medical school in the United States or Canada accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME); or
- Graduation from any college of College of Osteopathic Medicine accredited by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA); or
- Graduation from medical school outside of the United States or Canada and possessing a currently valid certificate from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) prior to appointment; or, have an active and unrestricted license to practice medicine in Colorado; or
- Graduation from medical schools outside the United States and completion of a Fifth Pathway Program provided by an LCME - accredited medical school.
2. Individuals applying for psychiatry fellowship programs must document completion of an appropriate psychiatry residency program, including an ACGME-accredited residency, or meet requirements as outlined in ACGME program requirements.
3. Individuals applying for psychiatry fellowship programs must have successfully completed the USMLE Step 3 examination or COMLEX Part 3, as evidenced by obtaining a passing grade for that examination, prior to applying for a fellowship. Passing scores must be obtained for all USMLE or COMLEX steps in no more than two attempts.
4. Applicants must be eligible for an active and unrestricted physician medical license as granted by the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners (CBME) and a DEA license.
5. Applicants must successfully pass a criminal background investigation (criteria specified in UC and GMEC background investigation policies)and any affiliated training facility investigation as necessary.
6. The University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine recognizes that residents enrolled in its programs are trainees, not employees. As such, applicants must be able to meet conditions of the institutional houseofficer (resident) training agreement. Specifically, residents in our program must be U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees, asylees, or possess the appropriate documentation to allow residents to legally train at the UC School of Medicine.
Virtual interviews with program faculty and current fellows are scheduled after applicants have been selected to interview. Because there are differences in fellowship programs, and the individual applicant’s personal goals for training, it is essential that each applicant interview virtually with general faculty and faculty that matches up with there interests. We are doing out best to get in a full day of interviews instead of having to split the interview into multiple day to avoid disruptions to applicants schedules.
Due to the large number of applications we receive, we are unable to interview everyone. The Selection Committee will review your application file, and we will notify you if you have been selected to interview.
The dates by which we must receive your completed application and for scheduling your interview vary slightly from year to year.
For the 2024-2025 academic year:
- Applications must be received by September 30, 2024
- Interview dates will be held September 1, 2024 through November 29, 2024.
A Fellow Selection Committee for each training program evaluates all eligible applicants. Applicants are evaluated on the basis of their preparedness and experience; academic credentials; ability and aptitude; communication and interpersonal skills; and on personal qualities such as integrity, learning motivation, and work ethic, and the ability to function within parameters expected of a practitioner in the specialty.
Programs will review and select applicants in a manner consistent with provisions of equal opportunity employment and must not discriminate with regard to sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, disability or any other applicable legally protected status.
Contact Us
Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship
1890 N Revere Ct, F546
AHSB, Suite 4100, Rm 4102
Aurora, CO 80045
Phone: (303) 724-6021
Fax: (720) 724-4963
Sarah Coleman
Fellowship Residency Coordinator
Phone: (757) 282-8135
Email: Sarah Coleman
Erica K. Rapp, MD
Program Director
Email: Erica Rapp