"Cross Pollination" of Ideas Made Possible With Psych Congress' Expansion Into Europe

Psych Congress Steering Committee Member Craig Chepke, MD, FAPA, medical director, Excel Psychiatric Associates, Huntersville, NC, shares why he is looking forward to Psych Congress' Expansion into Europe.

Heather Flint, senior digital managing editor, Psych Congress Network posed the question to Dr Chepke at Psych Congress 2021 in San Antonio, Texas.

The inaugural Psych Congress Europe will take place February 23-25, 2022 in Barcelona, Spain.

Read the transcript:

Heather Flint: Dr. Chepke, as a Psych Congress Steering Committee member, how excited are you about our expansion into Europe and going across the pond and going abroad?

Dr Craig Chepke:  It's absolutely outstanding. Psych Congress to me has been the premier psychiatric conference in the United States for decades now. We live in a very global world now.

I've done a lot of international programs with colleagues over in Europe and in other places, and the coming together of the different approaches is really fruitful for everybody involved.

I've learned so much from my European colleagues, and I hope they maybe have learned a little bit from me. The more that we can break those boundaries and learn different types of approaches is really critical to improving everyone's care.

Even just in America, when I go to different parts of this country, I learn so much about how treatment patterns are different, and new ideas, and different ways to approach things. If you start applying that to the international scene, that cross-pollination is just going to bring good ideas to everyone. We can share best practices. The rising tide is going to lift everybody's boat.

It's a tremendous opportunity for everybody to find out what is it like for other clinicians treating these illnesses. Are there things that we can take from them? Can we share some of our best practices with them? Ultimately, it's going to be the patients who are going to be the real winners in this. I can't wait for it.

Flint:  Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us.

Dr Chepke:  My pleasure.