Profile: Carmen Croicu, MD

Carmen Croicu, MD received her medical degree at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Carol Davila in Romania. During medical school, she realized that she enjoyed talking to patients and hearing their stories, and decided to pursue psychiatry. She completed a residency at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. After her residency, she did a fellowship at the University of Washington in psychosomatic medicine. She enjoys working in various settings and is currently an attending in an inpatient ward and in the consultation-liaison service at Harborview Medical Center, is working as a psychiatric consultant in a Collaborative Care setting in a women’s clinic at Harborview, and is one of the UW’s group leaders providing perinatal consultation in the new perinatal psychiatry consultation line. Her goal in her work is to help patients get better and to make a positive impact in their lives. It is also her goal to teach medical students, residents, fellows, and other physicians to develop an in-depth understanding of how a person’s mental health impacts their physical health status. She finds teaching to be one of the most rewarding parts of her role at UW. Although she is unsure what her most important work has been thus far, she values the work she has done as a psychiatric consultant at women’s clinics. Five years from now, she hopes that Collaborative Care will continue to improve mental health outcomes. She hopes Integrated Care continues to improve mental and physical health-related quality of life and to provide better care not only in primary care settings, but also in specialty clinics.