The 1,500-member Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine (APM) has voted to change its name to the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (ACLP). This membership-wide vote occurred on November 11, 2017, at the Academy’s annual business meeting. It follows an October 2017 official name change of the subspecialty by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) from Psychosomatic Medicine to Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.
For the past two years, APM, in consultation with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN), has formally explored a name change for the subspecialty. After hearing from APM that there was robust support from Academy members, ABPN earlier this year endorsed a name change for the field to C-L Psychiatry, followed by the ABMS vote in October.
According to APM President James R Rundell, MD, FAPM, “changing the Academy’s name to ACLP brings the organization into alignment with the ABMS’s renaming of the subspecialty and expresses the will of a very large majority of our membership. Consultation-Liaison psychiatrists are at the forefront of integrated medical and psychiatric practice, and have the medical knowledge, training and experience to function effectively in all inpatient and outpatient primary care and specialty services in this critically important arena.”
The name change to ACLP will “go-live” on April 16. A task force is in place with plans to conduct an orderly transition, making sure Academy members and allied medical organizations are kept informed and updated as changes are made to documents, web pages and Academy products.