José Maldonado, MD joined the Stanford faculty in 1993 and became Medical Director of the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Service in 1995. He received his medical degree at Ponce School of Medicine and his psychiatric training at Temple University, in Philadelphia. He completed additional training in Forensic Psychiatry at Temple University, and a fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry/Neuropsychiatry at New England Medical Center/Tufts University, in Boston.
Dr. Maldonado is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine; with courtesy appointments in the Departments of Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Surgery, the Center of Biomedical Ethics and the Stanford School of Law. He serves as Chief of the Medical and Forensic Psychiatry Section, Director of the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Clinic, and Medical Director of the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Consult Service. Dr. Maldonado areas of special expertise in the areas of delirium and post-critical care cognitive disorders, alcohol withdrawal syndromes, somatoform disorders, neuropsychiatry, dissociation, medical hypnosis, and organ transplantation.
Dr. Maldonado's research interest include: Neurobiology, Prediction, Prevention and Treatment of Acute Brain Failure (Delirium); Neuropsychiatric Sequelae of Medical Illness and its Treatment; Psychosocial Assessment & Neuropsychiatric Complications of Organ Transplantation; Functional Neurological Disorder; Application of Hypnosis in Psychiatry and Medicine; Neuropsychiatric Sequelae of Traumatic Brain Injury; Pathophysiology and Management of Alcohol Withdrawal; Factitious Disorder & Munchausen's Syndrome; Cultural Diversity in Medical Care; Diagnosis and Treatment of Dissociative Disorders; and Forensic Psychiatry.
Dr. Maldonado has received numerous awards including the Charles Shagass, MD Award, for meritorious scholarly work during residency training, from Temple University (1988). The Psychiatric Times named Dr. Maldonado 2001 Teacher of the Year. In 2002 he received the Best Paper Award on the Application of Hypnosis, presented by the American Psychological Association. In June 2003, Dr. Maldonado was awarded the Henry J. Kaiser Award at the Stanford University School of Medicine Commencement Ceremony for excellence in clinical teaching. In August 2003, Dr. Maldonado received the "Best Researcher/Author Presentation" Award at the World Congress in Psychosomatic Medicine for his work on acute brain failure/delirium. He received the 2004 DLIN/Fischer Award, for significant achievement in clinical research from the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry for his research in the prevention of Post-Operative Delirium and the introduction of novel alpha-2 agonists (e.g., dexmedetomidine) in ICU sedation protocols. He received the Teacher of the Year Award by the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University in 2004, 2009, and 2011. In 2009 he was recognize by the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry with the Dorfman Award, for Best Original Research, for his work on the development of the Stanford Integrated Psychosocial Assessment for Transplantation. In September 2012 he was named one of US News and World Report's 'Top Doctors'. In November 2012, he received the Research Poster of the Year Award from the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, for the development of a “Non-Benzodiazepine Protocol for Alcohol Withdrawal Syndromes”. In 2013, he received the Research Poster of the Year Award from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. In May 2014, Dr Maldonado received the Herbert Spiegel Award for Hypnosis Research from the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University & New York State Psychiatric Institute. In November 2014, Dr Maldonado received the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry’s DLIN/Fischer Award, for significant achievement in clinical research for his research on alcohol withdrawal syndromes and the development of the Prediction of Alcohol Withdrawal Severity Scale (PAWSS). He also received the APM’s 2014 Research Poster of the Year Award for the paper “Cortical hypoactivation during resting EEG suggests central nervous system pathology in patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”, and the 2014 Visiting Professorship Award. In June 2016, Dr Maldonado received the Sawlow Memorial Award on Neuroscience from the Oregon Health & Science University and the Portland International Neuroscience Symposium planned jointly by psychiatry, neurology and neurosurgery. Dr. Maldonado, he has been recognized by his clinical peers as one of Castle Connolly – “Top Doctor Award” every year since in 2003 (2003 – 2016). Finally, Dr. Maldonado was the recipient of the 2018 – Eleanor and Thomas P. Hackett Memorial Award by the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, the Academy’s highest honor, for distinctive achievements in CLP training, research, clinical practice, and leadership.
Dr. Maldonado is a Fellow of the American College of Forensic Psychiatry and the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (ACLP); and a member of the Board of Directors and Past-President of the American Delirium Society (ADS). Dr. Maldonado enjoys national and international recognition as an expert in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, and specifically in the pathophysiology, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of delirium and acute brain failure; the neurobiology, prevention and treatment of alcohol withdrawal syndromes; Transplant Psychiatry, more specifically the psychosocial assessment of organ transplant candidates and donors; traumatic brain injury; conversion disorder; and hypnosis. He is also director of the Mental Health & the Law course in the Stanford School of Law.
Dr. Maldonado is Board Certified in General and Adult Psychiatry, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry, Forensic Medicine, and Addiction Medicine. Dr. Maldonado has over 130 publications to his name, over 65 peer-reviewed scientific posters, and delivered over 170 peer-reviewed, organized and directed over 50 peer-reviewed symposia at national and international scientific meetings, and over 365 invited national and international presentations.
Dr Maldonado and his team have developed a number of clinical instruments and tools designed to assist Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry practitioners, including:
Stanford Integrated Psychosocial Assessment for Transplantation (SIPAT) – developed to assess the psychosocial candidacy of organ transplant and ventricular assisted devices (VADs). Studies have demonstrated that demonstrated that higher SIPAT scores are significantly correlated with the probability of poor medical (p<.001) and psychosocial (p=.002) outcomes. Currently been used in over 175 centers around the world and been translated into 10 languages. 2012, Stanford University.
Prediction of Alcohol Withdrawal Severity Scale (PAWSS) – Developed to identify medically-ill patients at risk of severe AWS, so appropriate prophylaxis and timely treatment could be implemented before the development of clinical complications. Studies have demonstrated the tool has a sensitivity of 93.5%, specificity of 99.5%, positive predictive value of 93.5%, and negative predictive value of 99.5%. I received the 2014 DLIN/Fischer Award for excellence in clinical research from the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry for my work on PAWSS. 2013, Stanford University.
Stanford Proxy Test for Delirium (S-PTD) – The first and only Delirium diagnostic tool based on DSM-5 and ICD-10 criteria, developed to allow for the timely and accurate diagnosis of delirium, in order to provide early and timely management of this condition. The tool has a sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 90% in the diagnosis of delirium in medically-ill patients. 2014, Stanford University.
Stanford’s Algorithm for Predicting Delirium (SAPD) – developed to help predict those patients at risk for developing delirium; which should provide for the implementation of prophylactic management techniques and monitoring of patients at risk. Validation studies are under way. 2015, Stanford University.
Stanford Integrated Psychosocial Assessment for Transplantation for Ventricular Assisted Device Patients (SIPAT–V) – a new tool developed for the psychosocial assessment of mechanical circulatory support candidates, including ventricular assist devices (VAD) and total artificial heart. 2017, Stanford University.
Stanford Integrated Psychosocial Assessment for Transplantation for Living Organ Donors (SIPAT–D) – a new tool developed to assess the psychosocial fitness of living organ transplant, donor candidates. The tool evaluates 21 critical risk factors, in 4 psychosocial domains: Candidate’s Readiness Level; Donor’s Social Support System; Psychological Stability: Psychopathology, including Substance Use Disorders; Donor Decision Making Process. 2018, Stanford University.
Liza Sher, MD received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where she majored in Molecular and Cell Biology with emphasis in Neuroscience. She then worked in Molecular Biology Lab at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco, where she conducted basic science research on Complex I and Complex II of the respiratory chain, resulting in several publications.
In 2003, she was accepted to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and was awarded the Olin Fellowship, for “female graduate students with exceptional professional promise.” During medical school, she received several awards, including the Herrmann Award, a peer-nominated recognition for a graduating medical student for their listening and communication skills, and the Peter Halstead Hudgens Award, in recognition of "excellence in research and clinical psychiatry during medical school." She was also elected into Alpha Omega Alpha, Honors Medical Society.
Dr. Sher went on to receive her residency training in adult psychiatry at Stanford Hospital and Clinics, where she was elected to be a Chief Resident and was awarded the Outstanding Resident Award during her final year. During her training at Stanford, Dr. Sher was particularly drawn to and inspired by Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. She was a member of the research team that first demonstrated the clinical efficacy of the Stanford Integrated Psychosocial Assessment for Transplantation (SIPAT) and became the first fellow in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Stanford.
Dr. Sher joined the Stanford faculty in October 2012. She was awarded 2012-2013 Webb Fellowship by the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. During her fellowship and continuing into her faculty time, Dr. Sher has been involved in several research projects, including the development and validation of a tool to help predict severe alcohol withdrawal among medically ill individuals, Prediction of Alcohol Withdrawal Severity Scale (PAWSS), and a study designed to validate the SIPAT.
Her most recent clinical and research interests include mental health of transplant patients, in particular lung transplant recipients, mental health of people with cystic fibrosis. In fact, she serves as a consultant to the Stanford Lung Transplant team and is embedded within the Stanford Adult CF Clinic, where she serves as a Director of Psychiatric and Psychological Program. In addition to a number of publications and conference presentations, Dr. Sher co-edited the new book with Dr. Maldonado "Psychosocial Care of End-Stage Organ Disease and Transplant Patients." She is currently working on several other books for transplant patients and patients with cystic fibrosis. Dr Sher is currently an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and serves as Associate Training Director of the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship Program. She has been recognized for her clinical innovation with The Annual Chairman's Award from Stanford Department of Psychiatry and for her teaching with the Best Teacher Award by the Graduating Psychiatry Residency Class.
In addition, Dr. Sher and her team have developed a number of clinical instruments and tools designed to assist Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry practitioners, including:
Stanford Adherence Tool for Cystic Fibrosis (SAT-CF) – a new tool clinical developed to quickly identify areas of strengths and challenges in adherence for patients with CF
Stanford Adherence Tool for Transplant (SAT-T) – a new clinical tool developed to quickly identify areas of strengths and challenges in adherence for patients after transplantation (in particular, lung transplant recipients)
Dr. Lahijani earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences with a minor in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Rhode Island in 2002. Prior to becoming a physician, Dr. Lahijani worked as a consultant in the Rhode Island Department of Health's Diabetes Prevention & Control Program and as a pharmacist in community settings. These experiences fostered her early interests in the interplay of behavioral health and medicine.
While attending Brown Medical School in Providence, RI, she focused clinically on infectious diseases, HIV, and endocrinology. She investigated skeletal health in HIV-infected patients. She also investigated the screening and primary care management for chronic hepatitis C virus in Rhode Island. Dr. Lahijani’ s interests in psychiatry developed as she appreciated the psychiatric comorbidities of patients with complex medical problems, such as HIV, hepatitis C, and diabetes, during her medical school rotations, particularly on the consultation-liaison psychiatry service. She developed further appreciation for holistic health, communication and cultural contexts through volunteering in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Iran.
Dr. Lahijani then pursued her medical training in the combined internal medicine/psychiatry residency program at Rush University Medical Center in 2007 in Chicago. She has worked extensively in the areas of primary care, endocrinology, HIV, addiction, critical care, and consultation-liaison psychiatry. Dr. Lahijani her Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry fellowship at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. She served on the Medical Ethics Committee at Northwestern and participated regularly in teaching activities of house staff. In her fellowship, she also developed greater interest in psycho-oncology, which prompted her to rotate at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
She is a member of the Association of Medicine and Psychiatry, the American College of Physicians, the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture, and the American Psychosocial Oncology Society. Given her collective experiences, Dr. Lahijani’ s clinical and research interests include the integration of medicine and psychiatry, cultural contexts of health and illness, psychotherapy, medical education, and patient advocacy. Dr. Lahijani joined the faculty at Stanford as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in September 2015; and Medical Director of the Psycho-Oncology Service in 2019. She is working as a psychiatric consultant and clinician educator in both the inpatient and outpatient settings while focusing on psychiatric oncology and integrated care models.
Andrea Ament received her bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame, where she majored in psychology and was a varsity athlete and NCAA fencing champion. After college, she worked in a cancer genetics lab at Ohio State University, and then attended medical school at Wright State University. During medical school she was interested in a number of specialties, and received a scholarship award for her work with the the OB/GYN department. Her interest in the field of consultation-liaison psychiatry was born during medical school, due to her passion for psychiatry and continued intrigue in multiple other fields of medicine.
In 2012 she started her residency in psychiatry at Stanford University, and in her 4th year served as a chief resident. During residency she was highly involved in the CL psychiatry service - as a PGY2 she completed her scholarly concentration on brief psychotherapeutic interventions in the medically ill (specifically bone marrow transplant patients), and helped to initiate a brief clinical trial looking at the use of Valproic Acid for the management of hyperactive delirium. After residency, she stayed at Stanford to complete her CL fellowship, during which time she co-authored a peer-reviewed paper on the critical care management of TBI, and a book chapter on the psychosocial issues related to uterine and penile transplantation. She has been an active presenter at both the American Psychiatric Association national meetings, and the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine national meetings since 2015.
Dr. Ament was fortunate to join the Stanford Psychosomatic Medicine team in 2017 after completing her fellowship. She is currently the lead psychiatrist in the Stanford Emergency Department, in addition to serving as a regular attending on the inpatient psychiatry consult service, and seeing patients in the psychosomatic medicine clinic. Some of her current work involves developing protocols for the assessment of suicide risk and violence risk. She also maintains a focus on resident and medical student teaching, from organizing psychiatry lectures for the Internal Medicine and Neurology residency programs and Palliative Care fellowship, to being the course director for the 2nd year psychiatry resident's class on inpatient psychopathology and psychopharmacology.
Dr. Hussain completed her medical education in Karachi, Pakistan, at the Aga Khan University in 2005 and travelled to the US to pursue her interest in Psychiatry. During residency at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota she was awarded the Mayo clinic M.J Martin award for excellence in CL psychiatry. It was at Mayo that she solidified her interest and identity as a Consultation Liaison Psychiatrist. Eliminating Mind body dualism while educating others and addressing stigma against psychiatry seemed like an effortless choice and so she pursued a CL fellowship at Columbia University in New York.
Visa obligations took her first to the UK where she utilized her experience in evaluating CL service performance in large teaching hospitals in the NHS. She subsequently moved back to the US to serve as the sole outpatient provider for 11 different counties in North West Wisconsin with a panel of over 1500 patients at a Mayo clinic satellite. During this time, she was an active board member of NAMI, taught psychopathology in Crisis Intervention Training for the Eau Claire, and Chippewa Police departments and avidly contributed to international health blogs and newspaper articles with an aim to decrease stigma against psychiatry
In Pursuit of a stimulating academic environment and a return to her true passion, CL psychiatry, she joined Stanford as a Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in 2017. As member of the Education Committee, She has been active in helping to restructure the fellowship education experience, initiating several new seminars including the immersion series, the book seminar, organizing the Chief of service rounds. Her clinical focus is transplant psychiatry, and she serves as the liaison to the Liver and Kidney transplant programs at Stanford. She continues to be engaged with the community and currently participates in the LEARN program, an endeavor educating patients about Fatty Liver disease. Other areas of clinical/research interests include Personality disorders, Suicidology, Cultural Psychiatry and medical pedagogy. She is also working with Dr. Maldonado in developing the SIPAT-D, a tool for evaluation of live organ donors.
Mariana Schmajuk received her medical school education at Boston University School of Medicine in 2013. She completed her General Adult Psychiatry Residency program Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York in 2016, serving as Chief Resident with a focus on the early transition from medical school to residency. She went on to complete her Consult-Liaison fellowship at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Medical Center in 2017.
Dr. Schmajuk joined Stanford University CLP team in 2017. She is a primary member of the emergency medicine consultations, working collaboratively with a nurse practioner, social worker and residents. Clinically, Dr. Schmajuk focuses on treating patients with terminal neurological disorders and oncological processes. Dr. Schmajuk is the director of the Psychosomatic Continuity clinic where residents and fellows are able to assess and longitudinally treat patients with psychiatric sequelea in the context of complex medical illness. She has particular interest in brief psychotherapeutic interventions. She enjoys teaching medical students about CL psychiatry and interviewing skills. At present, Dr. Schmajuk is using techniques of applied improvisation to educate psychiatry residents and others about the building blocks of communication. She also is an active member of the bioethics committee.
Dr. Zein received her dual bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology and Physiological Science at UCLA and worked initially as a healthcare consultant, developing programs that improve healthcare access for vulnerable populations. She returned to school to pursue a Masters in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, where she further developed her interests in the intersection of medicine and broader social-cultural themes, particularly the impact on mental health. She worked with the International Rescue Committee in Baltimore to help address the acculturation and psychological stress the Baltimore refugee population faced in resettlement.
In 2010, Dr. Zein began her medical training at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. During medical school she continue to pursue interests in global and cultural health. She represented McGill nationally as the Global Health Advocate in the Canadian Federation of Medical Students, and focused on national and local clinical projects to support refugee and asylum seeker access to medical and mental health treatment. She was awarded the Mona Bronfman Sheckman Prize in Psychiatry for her work. During her psychiatry residency training at New York University (NYU), Dr. Zein continued pursuing her interest in global mental health, working as a group leader for refugees/asylum seekers in the Bellevue Survivors of Torture program, and the Association for Culture and Psychiatry. She also became interested in Integrated Behavioral Health, particularly the University of Washington AIMs model, or Collaborative Care Model. She founded the Integrated Behavioral Health resident working group and designed a two-year resident training program in the Collaborative Care Model as well as pioneered other electives in HIV psychiatry and psych-oncology. In her last two years of residency she was an APA Leadership Fellow, and served on the APA Consult Liaison Psychiatry Committee. She worked on a Decisional Capacity Guidelines paper with other committee members, and presented on Consult Liaison educational opportunities and Integrated Behavioral Health Models at the APA conference. She completed residency as a chief resident and won awards for Excellence in Resident Teaching as well as for humanism and clinical excellence in the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program
Dr. Zein is one of the most recent graduates of Stanford’s Consult Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship and is joining the faculty this year as an attending. She will also be with the Stanford Employee Health clinics to help design a Collaborative Care model for Cisco and function as their consulting psychiatrist.
Affiliated Faculty
Dr. Larry McGlynn is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and has been on the faculty of Stanford since 2000. Dr. McGlynn began his career as a mathematician. After obtaining a graduate degree in applied mathematics/Operations Research from Stanford University, he was employed by Bell Communications Research to construct mathematical models of fiber optic electronics in the Japanese manufacturing industry. He began his transition to medicine after winning a fellowship in Mathematics and Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, where he utilized applied mathematics in both HIV and cardiovascular health in Mexican-Americans. Dr. McGlynn went on to earn his MD at Harvard Medical School where he was the recipient of the Paul Dudley White Fellowship. Dr. McGlynn used this award to study infant mortality in the highlands of Guatemala. He completed his psychiatry residency at The Cambridge Hospital.
In addition to serving as Clinical Professor and seeing patients in the Stanford-based HIV clinics, Dr. McGlynn is also Director of the Stanford Methamphetamine Task Force, a multidisciplinary group of physicians, nurses, social workers, legal experts and community members who are funded to research and provide education on the abuse of methamphetamine and its connection to HIV infection. Dr. McGlynn is also Faculty Medical Director for the San Jose AIDS Education and Training Center (AETC). In this role, he directs the multidisciplinary faculty (including Infectious Diseases, Primary Care, Mental Health, Nursing, Legal, and Social Work) and curriculum development. The San Jose AETC provides HIV clinical education for providers from Santa Clara County south to San Luis Obispo County.
At the national level, Dr. McGlynn serves as Chairman of the American Psychiatric Association’s Office of HIV/AIDS and its associated steering committee. In addition, he holds a seat on the APA’s Council on Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.
In 2010, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors presented Dr. McGlynn with the Burgiss Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Renee Garcia received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from California State University, Los Angeles in 2005. She then went onto conduct basic science research in both molecular biology and biochemistry investigating a family of enzymes, DNA glycosylases, involved in the base excision pathway responsible for the removal and replacement of damaged DNA bases. She continued her medical journey at Loma Linda University, School of Medicine where she earned her medical degree in 2010 and then onto general adult psychiatry residency at University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.
During her time in residency, she was honored with resident achievement award for her PGY-1 and PSY-2 years and was chief resident in her PGY-4 year. She also developed professional interests in reproductive psychiatry, repetitive traumatic brain injury, and decision making capacity assessments in the general hospital setting, as well as academic involvement in graduate medical education committee and residency selection committee. Her passion for inpatient consultation-liaison work also bloomed during residency leading to pursuit and completion of Stanford’s Psychosomatic Medicine Fellowship in 2015.
She subsequently transitioned to Stanford faculty with an academic focus in suicidality in the medically ill, agitation in hospitalized patients, assertive ER psychiatric management and ICU psychiatry. In addition to her role as an assistant clinical professor at Stanford, she is also director of the Psychiatric consultation-liaison service at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, California. Dr. Garcia has been able to extend the Stanford Psychosomatic medicine comprehensive biopsychosocial model to the community hospital setting along with providing continuing medical education symposiums to community primary care physicians, neurologists, and critical care physicians.
Dr. Ravindranath, a board certified Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry specialist, completed his undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences with a minor in Business Administration at UC Berkeley in 1999. In 2000, he matriculated into the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, earning his MS in Health and Medical Sciences in 2003 and his MD in 2005. He completed General Adult Psychiatry Residency and Fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at the University of Michigan in 2009 and 2010 respectively. During his post-graduate training, he received an additional certification in medical education and was the recipient of two teaching awards, the Association for Academic Psychiatry Fellowship, and the American College of Psychiatrists’ Laughlin Fellowship. He has maintained an academic and clinical interest in emergency psychiatry and acute care services, especially as it pertains to the mental health care of veterans. He is the Assistant Director for Inpatient Mental Health, Director of the Mental Health Evaluation Clinic, and Director of the Consultation-Liaison Service at the Palo Alto VA and has served as the site liaison for the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship since February 2014.
Dr. Savant completed her medical school education from Government Medical College, Patiala, India in 2008. She received her residency training in adult psychiatry at Loyola University Medical Center (2009-13). During her residency she was involved in various on-going research projects at her program. She received many achievement awards in research and appreciation for clinical work during residency. She was inducted as a member Medical Honor Society Alpha Omega Alpha during her residency by the caucus of student members of the society. She was actively involved in medical student teaching in psychopharmacology.
She completed her Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry fellowship at Stanford (2013 – 2014) during which time participated in the development and studying of a new tool for the diagnosis of delirium, the Proxy Test for Delirium (PTD) among hospitalized, medically-ill patients. After graduating Dr. Savant joined Stanford faculty as a part of Psych-oncology consult team. She also started a group psychiatric practice with focus on developing a mental health focused electronic medical record (EMR). The goal of this EMR would be to use machine learning to recognize behavioral patterns in helping predict episodes of mental illness and also learn physician prescribing patterns.
Dr. Savant's treatment philosophy in her words "I believe in the whole patient approach to treatment. Sometimes chasing a diagnostic criteria leads to loss of sight of the whole patient. In such cases the approach needs to be to understand the patient's symptoms in the context of their world, and biological factors. I enjoy considering all aspects of patients before coming to treatment decisions, be it their current physical health, environmental stressors or heredity. I find it inspiring to be around cancer and other chronically medically ill patients who often deal with breakdown of all aspects of their lives due to illness. I learn how to live daily from my patients and am full of gratitude to be of service to them.