Roberto Lewis-Fernández, M.D.

2014 Simon Bolivar Award Recipient

Lecture Title: The Practicality of Cultural Psychiatry: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice            

Dr. Lewis-Fernández completed his psychiatry training at The Cambridge Hospital (1986-1990) and went on to a Dupont-Warren psychiatric research fellowship (1990-1991) and a NIMH-sponsored fellowship in clinically applied medical anthropology (1991-1993) at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on creating culturally tailored interventions and tools to enhance patient engagement, reduce misdiagnosis, and address disparities in mental health care for underserved groups, particularly Latinos. He also examines how culture shapes individuals' experiences of mental disorders and their expectations for seeking help, emphasizing how to explore these cultural differences during psychiatric evaluations. Dr. Lewis-Fernández led the development of the DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview, a standardized method for cultural assessment in mental health practice, and served as the principal investigator for its international field trial, conducted across Canada, India, Kenya, the Netherlands, Peru, and the United States.