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Spring/Summer 2012 | Return to Outlook Main page » |
2012 Annual Meeting RecapJamie L. Studts, PhD, 2011-2012 Program Committee Chair
As in recent years, the meeting was kick-started on Tuesday by an outstanding pre-conference session sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and SBM and organized by Susan M. Czajkowski, PhD, and Christine M. Hunter, PhD. The well-attended session, "Innovations in Translational Behavioral Science: New Concepts, Study Designs and Implementation Strategies," addressed important issues in the design, implementation and analysis of early phase trials. This session was complemented by a robust array of workshops, seminars, and SIG course offerings on Wednesday morning and afternoon that were designed to help attendees develop new clinical and research skills.
The Friday morning Keynote Address was presented by Janet L. Collins, PhD, Associate Director for Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Collins detailed CDC initiatives to transform public health using data-driven programs and described examples of scaling interventions to achieve measurable health improvements. Also on Friday, Margaret A. Chesney, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, presented the 2012 Distinguished Scientist Master Lecture entitled, "Integrative Medicine: Fraud or Frontier and Why Behavioral Medicine May Care," that provided an overview of integrative medicine and its linkages with behavioral medicine. Jeffrey N. Keller, PhD, the Hibernia National Bank/Edward G. Schlieder Professor and Director of the Institute for Dementia Research and Prevention at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, offered the second Master Lecture on Friday afternoon. Dr. Keller's address outlined key opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations to promote healthy aging by exploring complex relationships between behavior, nutrition, movement and cognition. The President's Keynote Panel on Obesity, a special addition to this year's meeting, was held on Friday evening and featured Russell E. Glasgow, PhD, Thomas N. Robinson, MD, MPH, Deborah F. Tate, PhD, and Shiriki Kumanyika, PhD, MPH. The session examined diverse perspectives on the obesity epidemic, employed some technological enhancements to facilitate audience involvement, and created opportunities for a longer-than-usual question and answer session to facilitate an exchange of ideas among panelists and attendees. The presentations highlighted innovative ideas for obesity prevention and treatment, including clinic-based stealth interventions, technology-driven interventions, as well as policy-level interventions.
The Career Development-focused Keynote panels on Saturday offered a new approach to closing the meeting. One Keynote Panel organized by C. Tracy Orleans, PhD, Judith K. Ockene, PhD, MEd, MA, and Lisa M. Klesges, PhD, addressed career trajectories in behavioral medicine, "Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood . . . ": Roadmaps, Strategies, and Dialogue for Achieving your Behavioral Medicine Career Goals." The panelists, Melissa A. Clark, PhD, MS, James F. Sallis, Jr., PhD, and Gary G. Bennett, PhD, along with moderator, Dr. Orleans, discussed a range of perspectives and personal experiences regarding challenges and successes in managing their careers. In the second panel, Margaret L. Schneider, PhD, Bonnie Spring, PhD, ABPP, Robin J. Mermelstein, PhD, and Robert T. Croyle, PhD, addressed career issues related to team science and interdisciplinary research. In addition to panelist comments, both panels engaged attendees in an open exchange as a means of identifying both challenges and potential solutions to a range of career development issues. To fulfill the meeting theme, the program included four Featured Symposia. The Featured Symposium on Thursday morning addressed policy-related initiatives regarding electronic health records, "Identifying, Assessing, and Acting Upon, Common Behavioral and Psychosocial Data Elements within Electronic Health Records." On Thursday afternoon, the Featured Symposium "Genetics, Genomics and Behavioral Medicine Interventions: Partnerships and Perspectives to Improve Transdisciplinary Intervention Research," examined innovative genetic and genomic parameters in the evaluation of interventions. The Friday morning Featured Symposium, "Uncovering Hidden Health Behaviors of the Mouth: How Oral Health is Relevant to Behavioral Medicine Research," highlighted potential opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration with dental care providers and researchers. Finally, the Friday afternoon Featured Symposium sponsored by the American Cancer Society, "Evidence Based Solutions in Health Equity: Research and Policy Implications," focused attention on interventions to reduce cancer disparities.
As Chair and Co-Chair, we have many to thank for the success of the meeting. First, we would like to thank (now former) SBM President Abby C. King, PhD, for her thoughtful guidance and encouragement throughout the process of developing the 2012 program. We would also like to extend our sincere gratitude to our colleagues on the Program Committee (Gary G. Bennett, PhD, Barbara Resnick, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, FAANP, Robin C. Vanderpool, MPH, DrPH, and Geoffrey C. Williams, MD, PhD) and the 2012 Annual Meeting Field Planners (Alan J. Christensen, PhD, Matthew P. Buman, PhD, Donald L. Chi, DDS, PhD, Elliot J. Coups, PhD, Kristi D. Graves, PhD, Eric B. Hekler, PhD, Sara J. Knight, PhD, Shelby L. Langer, PhD, and Jennifer J. Otten, PhD, RD) who played critical roles in the development and execution of the program. We also wish to thank the Track Chairs and all the reviewers for their many hours of effort in reviewing and guiding the selection of abstracts for presentation. Additionally, the Program Committee would like to acknowledge the efforts of Sean M. Ransom, PhD, and the Local Arrangements Committee and thank them for doing such an outstanding job of providing a wealth of information about the New Orleans community, organizing several traditional SBM activities, and preparing the musical surprises that helped bring a bit of New Orleans into the meeting. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we would like to recognize our outstanding partners and friends at EDI, including Amy Stone (Executive Director) and Holland LaFave (SBM Manager of Meetings and Education) who provided such sage advice and seemingly endless energy to organizing and implementing the meeting as well as the mission of SBM. On behalf of the Program Committee, thanks to everyone for your contributions to the 2012 meeting, and we hope to see everyone in San Francisco in 2013. Jamie L. Studts, PhD Margaret L. Schneider, PhD
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