Health care reform: implications for academic psychiatric institutions

Health care reform provides an opportunity to redefine all aspects of our health care delivery system. This article focuses on mental health services and on the implications of health care reform for academic psychiatric institutions. Questions are raised regarding the challenges that academic psychiatric centers will face in pursuing the traditional responsibilities of research, education, and clinical care. The authors propose that intersystems dialogue will create solutions to the questions. The challenge to academic psychiatric institutions rests in creating the dialogue that will inform and guide new decisions regarding research, education, and clinical priorities with the ultimate aim of ensuring that quality is preserved through reform.