From Checklists to Dance Lessons: How Psychiatry Can Move Healthcare from Reform to Renewal

Abraham M. Nussbaum, MD, MTS, is the Chief Education Officer at Denver Health, Denver's academic safety-net health system, where he provides oversight and strategic vision to its undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs. An associate professor in the University of Colorado's Department of Psychiatry, he developed an award-winning curriculum for interviewing patients, which evolved into The Pocket Guide to the DSM-5 Diagnostic Exam, the leading psychiatric interview guide. With colleagues, he subsequently co-authored The DSM-5 Pocket Guide to Child and Adolescent Mental Health and The DSM-5 Pocket Guide to Elder Mental Health. Dr. Nussbaum studied literature and religion at Swarthmore, earned a master's in theology from Duke Divinity School, completed medical school and psychiatry residency at the University of North Carolina, and the Faculty Scholars Program at the University of Chicago's Program on Medicine and Religion. He authored The Finest Traditions of My Calling: One Physician's Search for the Renewal of Medicine, a memoir of medical training and practice during an era of healthcare reform. His writing has appeared in JAMA, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife and three children, all of whom root for the Heels.