Early Career Scientist (ECS) Training

The NIMH-funded IMPACT (Innovative Methods in Pathogenesis and Child Treatment) postdoctoral training program at Western Psychiatric Hospital/The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is seeking creative and energetic post-doctoral (MD or PhD) fellows in mental-health related disciplines.

The program, which has been funded since 1990, aims to develop scientists who can formulate original and significant research. The majority of our graduates go on to obtain academic appointments, secure external funding, and become leading scientists. Fellows have an opportunity to work with respected, multi-disciplinary faculty in one of the strongest child and adolescent psychiatry clinical and research programs in the United States. Training faculty provide mentorship across an array of approaches and methods that encompass the range of major child and adolescent psychiatric disorders. In addition, resources for travel, coursework, and pilot research are available.

We are especially interested in fellows with an interest in contributing to our rapidly growing program in the following areas:

  • translation of basic research findings into clinical interventions;
  • identification of individual differences in treatment response that leads to personalization and optimization of treatment;
  • use of technology to enhance behavioral health outcomes for youth;
  • implementation of effective interventions in community settings;
  • strategies for the dissemination of effective treatments; and
  • consumer, provider, and contextual determinants of intervention acceptability, effectiveness, and uptake.

Representative ongoing faculty mentor funded projects include:

  1. Assessment and Management of Depressed and Suicidal Youth in Pediatric Primary Care (ETUDES): A multidisciplinary Center aiming to develop innovative, effective, sustainable interventions that improve the detection, triage, engagement, and management of depressed and suicidal youth in pediatric primary care utilizing a dissemination and implementation framework.
  2. Sleep Predicting Outcomes in Teens (SPOT): A naturalistic longitudinal study to examine the specific and temporal association between sleep health and suicide risk among suicidal adolescents.
  3. Smartphone Data to Predict Suicidality in Adolescents (MAPS): A longitudinal study aiming to enhance prediction of near-term risk for adolescent suicidal behavior through analysis of active and passive smartphone data using computational machine learning techniques.
  4. Prediction of Suicidality among Youth Presenting to a Psychiatric Emergency Department (EASY). Examination of the accuracy of adaptive testing, machine learning and natural language processing, and theory-driven suicide risk assessment to predict suicidal behavior in youth presenting to a psychiatric emergency department.
  5. Neural Signatures of Suicidality (PRISM): Examination of neurocognitive markers of suicidality by applying machine-learning detection of brain activation patterns (via fMRI) that are neural signatures of concepts that are altered in suicidal individuals.

For more information on the IMPACT program, our training faculty, and the application process, please visit our website: www.childpsychresearch.com. Candidates are also welcome to contact Tina Goldstein PhD at goldtr@upmc.edu or (412) 246-5604 for more information.