Events

ABSTRACT: There is an increasing focus on changing healthcare from being reactive and clinic- or hospital-based to being proactive and continuous, with an emphasis on interventions that make use of home monitoring and information/communications technology to facilitate scalable approaches for delivering care to the home. continue...

The most significant health and wellness challenges increasingly involve multiple chronic conditions, from diabetes, hypertension, and asthma to depression, chronic-pain, sleep and neurological disorders. continue...

This event will feature three presentations covering NIH-funded research projects that explore aspects of re-entry and community health’s intersection including: HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, substance abuse, mental disorders, clinical research, health services, health disparities, social environment, sexual behavior and public policy. continue...

How does culture affect health-related beliefs and practices? Artists and arts organizations may help answer this question through a new funding opportunity from the National Institutes of Health. continue...

2012 NIH BSSR Retreat
October 22, 2012 in Bethesda, MD

Convention of NIH behavioral and social scientists aimed at further building the internal BSSR community and fostering enhanced collaboration. continue...

Prevention research in the injury field has matured over the last few decades and results offer optimism for reducing this toll in the future. This talk will provide an overview of the field, its history of accomplishments, as well as the challenges and opportunities that face it in the future. continue...

The purpose of the workshop is to identify research gaps and opportunities for exploring the relationship of arts participation and creativity to physical health and psychological well-being in older adults. continue...

The purpose of this webinar is to encourage collaboration between biobehavioral investigators and economists so that the results of clinical trials and studies are designed to promote appropriate and prompt implementation. continue...

One of the most critical issues impeding improvements in public health today is the enormous gap between what we know can optimize health and healthcare and what actually gets used and implemented in everyday practice. The science of dissemination and implementation (D&I) seeks to address this gap by understanding how to best ensure that evidence-based strategies to improve health and prevent disease are effectively delivered in clinical and public health practice.

D&I research draws from a variety of behavioral and social science disciplines and employs approaches and methods that in the past have not been taught comprehensively in most graduate degree programs.

Though this field of research has gained incredible momentum in recent years, there remains a need to grow a cadre of both new and established scientists who are prepared to (1) address the complex process of bridging research and practice in a variety of real-world settings and to (2) conduct research that balances rigor with relevance and employs study designs and methods appropriate for the complex processes involved in dissemination and implementation. continue...

The NIH Summer Institute will address essential conceptual, methodological, and practical issues involved in planning and carrying out research on the impact of behavioral and social interventions on health outcomes, health behavior, and treatment. Such interventions are relevant to NIH public health goals of preventing morbidity and mortality and promoting health and well-being for persons with medical and behavioral disorders and conditions.

The Institute is intended for junior investigators who have COMPLETED THEIR DOCTORATEand who plan to develop NIH grant applications for research in this area. Faculty (mentors) will include established investigators from relevant social work and other fields. Participants will be expected to submit a draft NIH grant application to their respective mentors by September 1, 2012 (tentative). continue...

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) invites you to a two-day conference that will bring together Federal agencies that invest in health promotion and disease prevention research with those that implement the research to discover shared research needs and form new partnerships. continue...

The 2012 Institute on Systems Science and Health (ISSH) will provide investigators with a thorough introduction to selected systems science methodologies that may be used to study behavioral and social dimensions of public health. Participants in the week-long Institute focused on one of three methodologies: agent-based modeling, system dynamics modeling, or network analysis. continue...

Mixed methods research is increasingly important for addressing complex problems facing public health. Mixed methods approaches are particularly well-suited to enhance our understanding of how to optimize dissemination and implementation (D&I) of evidence-based interventions. A challenge inherent in D&I research is that often neither a qualitative nor a quantitative approach alone is sufficient to fully understand the processes involved and/or outcomes resulting from the dissemination or implementation of a given intervention. Mixed methods research involves the intentional collection and integration of both qualitative and quantitative data and capitalizes on the strengths of each to enhance the breadth and depth of the researchers' understanding of a problem. Mixed methods research is a tool that can help to ensure that evidence-base strategies to improve health and prevent disease are effectively delivered in clinical and public health practice. continue...

NIH's Basic Behavioral and Social Science Opportunity Network (OppNet) presents its fourth symposium on Human and Model Animal Research in the Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences.

This series brings together scientists who conduct research on similar topics--at minimum, one researcher with human subjects, another with model animals. After individual presentations, the presenters, hosts and symposium participants will discuss areas of interest and potential future directions. continue

There is a recognized need to close the gap between research evidence and clinical and public health practice and policy. How is this best accomplished? Dissemination and implementation research in health seeks to answer this question, and is gaining momentum as a field of scientific inquiry. The goal of the annual NIH Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation is to facilitate growth in the research base by providing a forum for communicating and networking about the science of dissemination and implementation.

Researchers, evaluators and implementers who are interested in identifying opportunities and strategies for overcoming obstacles for dissemination and implementation research/evaluation are encouraged to attend this meeting. The goal is to engage in dialog, exchange ideas, explore contemporary topics and challenge one another to identify and test research approaches that will advance dissemination and implementation science.

Registration and call for proposals details will be available online shortly at: http://conferences.thehillgroup.com/obssr/di2012/index.html

December 14, 2011 marks the anniversary of the HHS Strategic Framework on Multiple Chronic Conditions - an innovative private-public sector collaboration to coordinate responses to a growing challenge. Consistent with the goals of the Strategic Framework, an initiative at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was developed to generate research that targets behavioral interventions for people with multiple chronic conditions.Behavioral Interventions to Address Multiple Chronic Health Conditions in Primary Care (R01, PA-12-024) is a recently-released funding announcement that is supported by many of the NIH Institutes and Centers.

Health care providers face the ongoing challenge of supporting patients in a broad range of health decisions and behaviors that influence their daily well-being and long-term outcomes. Yet patients vary greatly in their treatment preferences and capacity for adopting healthy behaviors and managing disease. This is especially the case when the self-care and behavior change strategies required are associated with multiple chronic diseases. This is a growing issue with more than a quarter of all Americans - and two out of three older Americans - currently having multiple chronic conditions. These numbers are expected to rise as the number of older Americans increases.continue..

To join the webinar go to: http://conferences.thehillgroup.com/obssr/di2012/index.html

Audio Bridge: Dial-in  866-628-8620  /  Passcode 135462

OBSSR and many NIH Institutes, Centers, and Federal partners will host a five-day training Institute that will bring together leaders in mobile technology, behavioral sciences and clinical research to lead a cross-training event for early career investigators with interest in mHealth. The training curriculum will cover the current state of the science in mobile technology and engineering, behavior change theory and clinical applications, and highlight the intersection among these areas for research related to health. Participants should expect to leave the Institute with experience creating mHealth projects in an interdisciplinary setting.

For more information, please visit:
http://obssr.od.nih.gov/training_and_education/mhealth_application.aspx

November 9, 2011, NIH Main Campus, Building 45, Natcher Conference Center, Balcony B

OBSSR is convening a symposium commemorating 30 years since the first reported cases of HIV/AIDS in 1981. This event honors the significant contributions of behavioral and social science to HIV/AIDS research thus far and highlights ways in which it will continue to advance the understanding, treatment and prevention of the disease moving forward.

World-renowned researchers - Drs. Thomas Coates (UCLA), Wafaa El-Sadr (Columbia Univ.), David Bangsberg (Harvard Univ.) and Carl Dieffenbach (NIH/NIAID) - will offer presentations on the role of behavioral and social science in HIV/AIDS research projects targeting three research and implementation goals: expanded testing, effective prevention tools and a cure. No registration is required and the event is free and open to the general public. More information is available by contacting OBSSR's Dana Sampson (Sampsond@od.nih.gov).

The goal of this 5-day training institute is to provide participants with a thorough grounding in conducting dissemination and implementation research in health. Faculty and guest lecturers will consist of leading experts (practitioners and teachers) in theory, implementation and evaluation approaches to D&I, creating partnerships and multi-level transdisciplinary research teams, research design, methods and analyses appropriate for D&I investigations and conducting research at different and multiple levels of interventions (e.g., clinical, community, policy). Participants will be expected to return to their home institutions prepared to share what they have learned at the institute to help grow the field of D&I research (e.g., giving talks, leading seminars, forming new collaborations, mentoring, and submitting D&I grant proposals etc).

For more information, please visit:
http://conferences.thehillgroup.com/OBSSRinstitutes/TIDIRH2011/index.html

OBSSR and many NIH Institutes, Centers, and Federal partners will host a five-day training Institute that will bring together leaders in mobile technology, behavioral sciences and clinical research to lead a cross-training event for early career investigators with interest in mHealth. The training curriculum will cover the current state of the science in mobile technology and engineering, behavior change theory and clinical applications, and highlight the intersection among these areas for research related to health. Participants should expect to leave the Institute with experience creating mHealth projects in an interdisciplinary setting.

For more information, please visit:
http://obssr.od.nih.gov/training_and_education/mhealth/index.aspx

Social Isolation and Health
John T. Cacioppo, Ph.D.

Social species, by definition, form organizations that extend beyond the individual. These structures evolved hand in hand with behavioral, neural, hormonal, cellular, and genetic mechanisms to support them because the consequent social behaviors helped these organisms survive, reproduce, and care for offspring sufficiently long that they too reproduced, thereby ensuring their genetic legacy. Social isolation represents a lens through which to investigate these behavioral, neural, hormonal, cellular, and genetic mechanisms. Evidence from human and nonhuman animal studies indicates that isolation heightens sensitivity to social threats (predator evasion) and motivates the renewal of social connections. The effects of perceived isolation in humans share much in common with the effects of experimental manipulations of isolation in nonhuman social species: increased tonic sympathetic tonus and HPA activation, and decreased inflammatory control, immunity, sleep salubrity, and expression of genes regulating glucocorticoid responses. Together, these effects contribute to higher rates of morbidity and mortality in older adults.

For more information, please visit:
http://obssr.od.nih.gov/news_and_events/lectures_and_seminars/matilda_white_riley_annual_lecture/seminars.aspx

The 2011 Institute on Systems Science and Health (ISSH) will provide investigators with a thorough introduction to selected systems science methodologies that may be used to study behavioral and social dimensions of public health. Participants in the week-long Institute will focus on one of three methodologies: agent-based modeling, system dynamics modeling, or network analysis.

For more information, please visit:
http://obssr-test.od.nih.gov/training_and_education/issh/2011/index.html

• Describe the principles underlying the conduct of unbiased clinical trials.
• Identify the unique challenges posed by behavioral randomized clinical trials (RCTs).
• Evaluate alternative RCT designs in terms of their appropriateness to scientific and clinical goals.
• Select appropriate strategies for enrollment, randomization, and retention of participants.
• Understand methods for monitoring, coordinating, and conducting RCTs.
• Develop strategies for appropriate statistical analyses of RCT data.
• Evaluate the quality of behavioral RCTs and interpret their results.
• Design a RCT research project in collaboration with a scientific team.

• Describe the principles underlying the conduct of unbiased clinical trials.
• Identify the unique challenges posed by behavioral randomized clinical trials (RCTs).
• Evaluate alternative RCT designs in terms of their appropriateness to scientific and clinical goals.
• Select appropriate strategies for enrollment, randomization, and retention of participants.
• Understand methods for monitoring, coordinating, and conducting RCTs.
• Develop strategies for appropriate statistical analyses of RCT data.
• Evaluate the quality of behavioral RCTs and interpret their results.
• Design a RCT research project in collaboration with a scientific team.