CDA Alumni Spotlight: Steven Dobscha, M.D.
Home | CDA: Awardees, Alumni | RCS: Award, Awardees | Awardee Spotlight | OAA Awards
Steven Dobscha, M.D.
Core Investigator
Portland Center for the Study of Chronic, Comorbid Mental and Physical Disorders
Portland, Oregon Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Award period: 1/7/2005 - 9/30/2008
Former HSR&D Career Development Awardee, Steven Dobscha, M.D., is now a core investigator at HSR&D's Portland Center for the Study of Chronic, Comorbid Mental and Physical Disorders, in Portland OR. He also is Chief of Psychiatry and Clinical Director of the Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences Division at the Portland VAMC, and Professor and Vice Chair for Veterans Affairs in the Department of Psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University. Dr. Dobscha has worked in a number of primary care settings providing psychiatric consultation and developing consultation programs. His research interests include approaches to integrating psychiatric and primary medical care, suicide and suicidal ideation, managing chronic conditions (i.e., chronic pain in primary care), and end-of-life care. Currently, he is principal investigator on an HSR&D funded study that explores predictors and outcomes of positive suicidal ideation screening in the VA; he also leads a study on the medical care Veterans receive in the VA prior to death by suicide. Dr. Dobscha is partnering with the VA Office of Mental Health Services—Suicide Prevention on this project.
Here, Dr. Dobscha discusses his experience and advice regarding an HSR&D Career Development Award (CDA).
What was the reason(s) you first applied for an HSR&D Career Development Award?
A few years prior to my CDA application, I made a career shift from a clinical/teaching focus to research. At that time, I received a lot of help from colleagues in preparing an HSRD grant submission—and was very lucky to receive funding for the grant. However, I felt unprepared as I joined the HSR&D research community, in terms of how to develop a research program, and in my statistics and methodology skills. I was also concerned about not having enough time to write manuscripts. A CDA application seemed like the best next step.
What was the most important benefit of the CDA for you?
Protected time. Having more time allowed me to write manuscripts, develop new research ideas, network with researchers, take some statistics courses, and develop a research team.
How much time do you spend in research now?
About 40%; the majority of my time is devoted to my role as Clinical Director of Mental Health.
What's the best career advice you've ever received?
I took a time management course years ago, which recommended creating four categories for my activities: 1) High Urgency/High Importance; 2) Low Urgency/High Importance; 3) High Urgency/Low Importance; and 4) Low Urgency/Low importance. One should try to spend as much time doing Low Urgency/High Importance tasks, and as little time doing Low Urgency/Low importance tasks as possible. Learning to (trying to) manage my time this way, and keeping a focus on what is most important to me, has been invaluable.
What advice would you give to prospective CDA candidates and new awardees?
It is critical to find a mentor who will help you set boundaries around your time and keep you focused on research, because during the time in which you have CDA, a lot of people will ask you to get involved in various projects. On the other hand, although you need to make steady progress on achieving your CDA objectives, use some of your CDA time to learn about other research areas and methodologies.
Do you have any other comments, insights, advice that you would like to share about your CDA and post-CDA experience?
It is critical to start and keep multiple projects going that are at different stages of development—this can enhance efficiency and productivity. Learning how to assertively manage the flow of my research activities without taking on too much was a big challenge for me during my CDA. But my experiences doing this have greatly helped my research, as well as my administrative work.