Creator of EmPATH model for crisis stabilization; Vituity Vice President of Acute Psychiatry
Scott Zeller, MD is Vice President for Acute Psychiatry at the multistate multispecialty physician group partnership Vituity; assistant professor at the University of California-Riverside School of Medicine; Past President of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry; Past Chair of the National Coalition on Psychiatric Emergencies; and former Chief of Psychiatric Emergency Services for the Alameda Health System in Oakland, CA, where he developed the “Alameda Model.” He has authored multiple textbooks, book chapters, and peer-reviewed articles, has lectured in-person in every continent on Earth except Antarctica, and is known as the co-inventor of Emergency Telepsychiatry and the creator of the EmPATH Unit (Emergency Psychiatry Assessment, Treatment and Healing Unit) model for behavioral health emergency care. He led Project BETA (Best Practices in the Evaluation and Treatment of Agitation), which produced guidelines that have revolutionized the care approach to agitated individuals around the world. He was awarded the 2015 USA Doctor of the Year by the National Council for Behavioral Health, the 2019 California Hospital Association Heerman Award for making a landmark contribution to improving California healthcare; in 2020 he received an HCD-10 award from Healthcare Design Magazine, and in 2024 was recipient of the University of California-Riverside Healthcare Innovation Award.
