Academic psychiatrists are involved with the training of every one of the 67,000 medical students in the United States (¹, ²). These early career medical trainees, in turn, will be critical to the provision of health care for millions of people. Moreover, they will serve as key leaders in public health, in science, in health administration, and in other aspects of the profession of medicine in the United States and other countries for coming decades. Accordingly, the activities and contributions of psychiatrist clinician-educators and directors of medical student education programs are not only important for their positive influence on developing early career professionals—they are important to the integrity of the field of medicine and to the quality of the health of the public throughout the world.

This issue of Academic Psychiatry is of special significance for many reasons. First, it is the first time that a clear policy statement on the recommended length of third-year clerkships in psychiatry has been developed and endorsed by two psychiatric education professional organizations: the Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry and the Association for Academic Psychiatry (ADMSEP) (³). The committed stance of these organizations to a minimum of 6 weeks of training dedicated to clinical psychiatry (i.e., not shorter, and not "hybrid" arrangements with other fields) is of great importance and reflects growing awareness of the impact of mental illness and comorbid behavioral conditions throughout the world (⁴). In the United States alone, the economic impact of neuropsychiatric disorders is estimated at $1.2 trillion annually (⁵). One in five of us will experience an episode of significant mental illness during our lifetimes (⁶, ⁷). As many as 60% to 80% of ambulatory patient visits across medicine are linked with mental health, addiction, and related precipitants (⁸). Our students, irrespective of specialty, role, or setting, need to be prepared to care for the mental health needs of patients. This policy statement demonstrates a professional commitment to fulfilling this imperative in healthcare, and it represents a critical landmark for medical education.

Second, the richness of the issue—with papers on pedagogy, on leadership, on empirically derived or validated approaches, on innovation in medical education—reflects the progress achieved in this area of academic psychiatry (³, ⁹—²⁴). Some of the issues raised are broad and enhance a global understanding of medical student training and, specifically, undergraduate medical student education in psychiatry (e.g., attitudes toward psychiatric training, valuable curricular goals, the aforementioned policy statement), whereas other issues addressed pertain to highly focused methodological questions (e.g., the bias introduced by the timing of standardized examinations for medical students, the impact of specific teaching techniques). The papers were expertly shepherded, evaluated, and guided by our guest editor, Dr. Janis Cutler, whose scholarly excellence, educational experience, and immense professionalism were well-employed by the process. We also wish to recognize formally our peer reviewers for this special issue, who gave valuable and timely feedback and whose efforts permitted this collection to come to fruition so quickly.

Last, we wish to highlight that this collection of papers on medical student education honors the commitment of the ADMSEP in 2003 as a sponsoring organization for our journal (²⁵). Academic Psychiatry is the journal of the four professional organizations whose missions are committed to leadership, innovation, and excellence in psychiatric education and academic psychiatry more generally: the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry, the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training, the Association for Academic Psychiatry, and the Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry. We thank them, as always, for their commitment to the journal, which serves in its distinct, influential role in the field of psychiatry.