Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Clinical Psychology Training Consortium
Postdoctoral Fellowship Description: RESEARCH FOCUS
Title:
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Integrated Primary Care Psychology
Site:
Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island
Supervisor(s):
Lisa Uebelacker, Ph.D., Co- Primary Supervisor
Justin Nash, Ph.D., Co- Primary Supervisor
Charles Eaton, M.D., Research Supervisor
Description of Site
The postdoctoral fellowship position in integrated primary care psychology will be based in the Department of
Family Medicine at Memorial Hospital. Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island (MHRI) is a non-profit academic
teaching hospital affiliated with Brown University School of Medicine. This 294 bed community hospital is
located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. MHRI provides a full spectrum of clinical services with over 7,800
admissions, 750 deliveries, 7,000 operative procedures and 32,000 emergency room visits. Besides clinical
services, MHRI sponsors a wealth of teaching and research activities. MHRI serves as the center for education
and research in Primary Care for Brown University’s Medical School. MHRI sponsors two residency training
programs, one in Family Medicine and another in General Internal Medicine, with a combined 80 resident
trainees. Memorial Hospital has two outpatient primary care practices – one in Family Medicine and one in
General Internal Medicine. These are the sites for training medical students, residents, fellows and also serve as
test sites for piloting research projects. Sixteen faculty and 56 residents see their patients in two practices with
state of the art facilities. These include 36 examining rooms, electronic medical records, patient education rooms,
outpatient laboratory, x-ray, and videotaping facilities. More than 10,000 active patients are seen with over
45,000 outpatient visits.
The research experiences will be based in the Center for Primary Care and Prevention. The Center for Primary
Care and Prevention is a multidisciplinary research center addressing factors affecting the leading causes of
chronic disease. Researchers at the CPCP have backgrounds in family medicine, internal medicine epidemiology,
anthropology, psychology, and biostatistics. The CPCP is a collaborative effort between Brown University and
the Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island. The CPCP, based at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, has sole use of a
6,000 square foot floor in a new building with offices and fireproof data storage facilities. The CPCP, with over
$20 million dollars in funded research and contracts and 10 active projects in the field, has an excellent track
record of performing cutting edge clinical, translational and educational research. The Director of the CPCP, Dr.
Charles Eaton is also the Research Director of the New England Research Network (NERN). This research
network, consisting over 53 practices and 102 primary care physicians, has participated in several NIH or AHRQ
funded research studies including office based physical activity counseling, nutrition counseling, melanoma skin
cancer screening, and cholesterol screening and management studies. The Center is also the site for the Vanguard
Clinical Center for the Women’s Health Initiative, clinical center for the Osteoarthritis Initiative and stores the
Pawtucket Heart Health Program database, archival record and its frozen sera.
The clinical experiences will be based in the Family Care Center (FCC) and Primary Medical Group of Warwick
(a CNE Affinity practice). The FCC is the teaching facility and practice base for the Brown Family Medicine
Residency Program. The FCC serves 12,500 active patients with approximately 30,000 patient visits annually.
FCC patients include infants, children, adolescents, adults, including geriatric and prenatal patients. The FCC
patients are primarily low-income families from Pawtucket and Central Falls. Some are long time residents of the
Blackstone Valley, while many have immigrated from Latin America, Southeast Asia, Cape Verde, Portugal and
West Africa. The FCC strives to be a model practice in which residents participate in innovative models for
providing family medicine. As an NCQA Level 3 Patient Centered Medical Home, the FCC includes practice
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Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Clinical Psychology Training Consortium
Postdoctoral Fellowship Description: RESEARCH FOCUS
innovations such as Electronic Medical Records, open-access scheduling, integrated primary care, the chronic
care model, group medical visits for diabetes, chronic pain, osteopathic manipulative medicine clinic and group
prenatal visits.
Primary Medical Group of Warwick is a smaller practice with 4 primary care physicians and a nurse care
manager. Post-doctoral fellows provide behavioral health consultation at this clinic.
Fellowship Aims
1. To provide the fellow with broad post-doctoral training in the area of integrating behavioral health services
into a primary care setting for children, adults, and families from underserved backgrounds.
2. To provide the fellow with a strong working knowledge of conducting health behavior and behavioral health
research in primary care settings and in addressing the behavioral health needs of patients in primary care,
particularly as the behavioral health needs impact physical health.
3. To provide the fellow with research training and experience in preparation for a research career that addresses
the health and behavioral health needs of underserved populations in primary care settings (e.g., depression,
suicide, anxiety, pain, obesity, cardiac risk factors, or health-care overutilization).
Fellowship Timeline
The duration of the fellowship is 2 years, contingent upon satisfactory progress and availability of funding for a
second year. The anticipated start date is July 1, 2016.
Research Activity Plan (50% effort)
The fellow will be exposed to various aspects of primary care research via participation in the following activities
(at least 20% will be focused on developing their own research).

Review of literature (5%): The fellow will be provided with a series of readings in the area of primary care
research in general, with a specific focus on integration of behavioral health care into primary care. The
fellow will also be encouraged to review primary care literature with a specific focus on a content area of
interest, such as depression, suicide, anxiety, pain, obesity, cardiac risk factors, or health-care overutilization.

Grant writing and manuscript preparation (20%): The fellow will be encouraged to develop a grant idea and
submit a grant proposal by the end of the fellowship term.
The fellow will be encouraged to collaborate on manuscript preparation and poster submissions at national
conferences. Individually tailored goals will be established in this area.


Pilot and related projects (20%): The fellow will help to develop and execute existing research projects
related to integrated primary care as well as conduct a small pilot project. These projects may provide pilot
data for his/ her planned grant or may provide pilot data for a grant he/ she works on with a supervisor.

The fellow will be required to participate in monthly research meetings conducted at the Center for Primary
Care and Prevention as well as Family medicine grand rounds and Psychiatry grand rounds (5%).
Clinical Activity Plan (40% effort)

Clinical experiences in the Family Care Center and the Primary Medical Group of Warwick (40%). The
postdoctoral fellow will provide direct patient care in scheduled and unscheduled (i.e., warm handoffs)
assessments and interventions using brief patient encounters (20-30 minutes) over the short-term (3-5 visits).
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Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Clinical Psychology Training Consortium
Postdoctoral Fellowship Description: RESEARCH FOCUS
The fellow will also work alongside Family Medicine residents and faculty physicians to provide concurrent
care of problems that are at the interface of behavioral and physical health. The fellow will also serve as a
consultant to physicians and other primary care team members to guide the behavioral healthcare of patients
in the primary care setting. The targets of assessment and treatment will include adjustment to chronic
illness, health behavior change, psychological disorders (e.g., mood, anxiety, somatoform), and substance use.
Patients can include children and adults using individual, couples, family, and group modalities. Up to half
of this clinical experience (i.e., 20% of total time) may be in the context of an integrated primary care clinical
research project.
Path toward licensure: YES__X___ NO_____
Didactics (10%)
Post-Doctoral Seminars: The fellow will participate in the following post-doctoral seminars through the Brown
Post Doctoral Training Program.
Core Seminars (1 per month)
DPHB Academic Grand Rounds (1 per month)
Clinical Ethics – (1 per month)
Academic Friday – Grantsmanship seminars, Special Topics in Statistics and Research Methods
Supervision and Evaluation
Supervision will be provided in the form of weekly individual research supervision (some combination of Drs.
Uebelacker, Nash and/or Eaton, depending on fellow’s interests and activities) and clinical supervision (Drs. Nash
and Uebelacker). A faculty member from the Child Track will be available for consultation for child related
issues.
At the conclusion and midpoint of the fellowship, the fellow and the supervisors will provide formal evaluations,
and evaluations of the program relative to the goals and learning objectives of the fellowship.
Resource Requirements
Fellow will be provided with the following resources:
 Access to space appropriate for clinical care
 A computer and project specific software
 Internet access
 Telephone
Reporting and approval
This fellowship will be part of the Behavioral Medicine Track. The position has been discussed and approved by
leadership of the Behavioral Medicine Track.
_____________________________________
Track Post-Doctoral Training Coordinator
______________________________________
Associate Director of Psychology Training/General Fellowship Director
______________________________________
Director of Psychology Training Committee
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