1 R25 HD38562-01
Margaret Huyck
Institute of Psychology
Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, IL 60616-3793

The project addresses the complex problems of providing rehabilitation for persons with disabilities, that is, those who have some limitation in performing usual roles and tasks. The ultimate aim is to enhance the quality of life for persons with disabilities. However, the more intermediate aim is to add value to biomedical research by adding social-behavioral perspectives. The goal is to enhance the effective design, testing and implementation of assistive technologies by helping biomedical and rehabilitation engineering professionals integrate behavioral science perspectives and practices in their work. This will be accomplished by a) recruiting a group of biomedical and rehabilitation engineers who are now or who are interested in developing and implementing assistive technologies used in human rehabilitation; and b) providing an intensive four-day workshop retreat covering overviews of biomedical engineering, behavioral science, ethical, and consumer perspectives, and sessions on specific issues of working with humans as research subjects and as end-users. The workshop topics include: 1) Establishing Shared Perspectives, 2) Tales from the Front Lines, 3) Special Issues When Humans Are Involved in Research, 4) Building a Multidisciplinary Research Team, and 5) From Concept to Research to Deployment. The organizing committee for this project is involved in interprofessional education and research activities, most centered on rehabilitation. Workshop faculty have been selected for their expertise in multidisciplinary research, their willingness to discuss the benefits and pitfalls of such collaborations, and their commitment to meet with the group for the entire workshop. The specific aim is to increase the pool of biomedical and rehabilitation engineers and behavioral scientists who are interested in and able to work together to carry out the research needed. Suggestions for additional steps to facilitate such collaborations will be included in the final report and publications.

1 R25 HD38574-01
Susan H. Landry
Medical School
University of Texas Health Sciences Center
7000 Fannin, UCT 2401
Houston, TX 77030

The long-term objective of this project is to stimulate the development of interventions that will optimize the physical, mental, and emotional development of children. The specific aim of this project is to develop and conduct a Workshop for investigators in the several areas that relate to child development. The Workshop will enhance understanding--both technical and theoretical--of the biologic, emotional, cognitive, social and health policy aspects of the health policy aspects of the field. Greater awareness of each other's approaches will enrich individual research efforts of the participants and stimulate collaboration between investigators from different disciplines. The research issues discussed in the Workshop have direct relevance to one of the stated objectives of Healthy People 2000 for children to enter school ready to learn. The workshop will examine how interdisciplinary research can provide the information to shape health policies that will permit and encourage children to achieve their optimum potential --physical, mental and emotional. The curriculum of the Workshop will provide an understanding of the theoretical bases of the various disciplines represented and how they relate to each other utilizing experts both from this University and outside. The breakout sessions will provide opportunities for participants to discuss their interests with the faculty experts and with each other and to lay the groundwork for more interdisciplinary research. Special efforts will be made to recruit young investigators to join with senior and mid-career scientists.

1 R25 DE13583-01
Robert A. Bagramian
University of Michigan
School of Dentistry
1011 N. University Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1078

This workshop will be a one-week program for new investigators including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty in the basic and clinical biomedical sciences, behavioral sciences and public health. Its main objective is to foster the development of cross-disciplinary communication and research collaboration around the issue of quality of life and health. Participants will be drawn from the University of Michigan doctoral programs in Oral Epidemiology in the School of Public Health, Oral Basic Sciences in the Dental School, Nursing Research in the Nursing School and Psychology in the College of Literature, Sciences and Arts (LS&A). A limited number of places will be available to investigators from other institutions. Special attention is given to include participants of color and women. Extensive preparatory activities with the teaching faculty and a needs-assessment with the targeted participant populations will precede the actual workshop. The actual workshop introduces the participants to the conceptual and methodological research in the area of quality of life and health, stimulates extensive cross disciplinary communication, and has as its main goal to initiate cross disciplinary research initiatives that will result in the submission of grant proposals. The workshop will use a format that will stimulate cross-disciplinary communication. It will consist of lectures, panel discussions, break out groups, and informal discussion groups. The workshop proceedings will be published as a resource book for persons not directly involved in the workshop. A distinguished cross-disciplinary group of faculty from the University of Michigan and from three other institutions was recruited to serve as instructors and mentors to the workshop participants. The ultimate outcome of this workshop is to generate cross-disciplinary research proposals around quality of life and health issues.

1 R25 AG18233-01
John W. Molyneaux
RAND
1700 Main Street
P.O. Box 2138
Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138

The goal of this interdisciplinary workshop is to improve research on population, health, and the environment. The grant will support. (1) an initial one-day round table meeting for leading scholars in key fields related to environmental change to compare approaches and findings, and to suggest promising directions for further inquiry, and (2) a main workshop including 40 participants in the summer of 2000. The participants in the initial one-day round-table meeting will serve as an Advisory Committee and provide advice on the program for the main workshop. The workshop will aim to enhance research in social, physical, biological, and medical sciences on: (a) the determinants of environmental outcomes and (b) their consequences for health. A serious understanding of environmental change and its consequences will require an interdisciplinary approach, in which scholars from several different disciplines collaborate. This workshop is designed to stimulate and foster interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration on a broad range of issues related to the population, the environment, and health. To do this, it will: (1) introduce researchers to essential theoretical advances and empirical findings from multiple disciplines; (2) expose researchers to new or less well-known measurement issues and techniques; and (3) recruit leading researchers, at the junior and senior levels, in the social and health sciences into research on the determinants of environmental change and its health consequences.

1 R25 NR05095-01
Jacqueline Dunbar-Jacob
School of Nursing
University of Pittsburgh
460 Victoria Building
3500 Victoria Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15261

We will conduct a one-week workshop on methodological issues in studies of adherence, emphasizing the measurement and analysis of adherence through an interdisciplinary perspective. The workshop is designed to develop an interdisciplinary methodological perspective, including both behavioral and biological assessment methods; to develop skills in methodologic design addressing adherence to health care regimen, drawing upon the expertise of multiple disciplines; and, to develop skiIls in working in an interdisciplinary environment. The workshop is targeted toward young investigators from a broad range of disciplines. We will recruit attendees from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, pharmacology, health services research, social work, nutrition, exercise physiology, physical therapy, psychology, health economics, and statistics through mailing to relevant academic programs, through selected journal and/or newsletter advertisements, through web site announcements, and through referrals from professional colleagues. Expert faculty will be drawn from a broad representation of disciplines involved in the study of adherence to health care regimen including the clinical sciences. (medicine, nursing, pharmacy, clinical pharmacology, nutrition, exercise physiology, health psychology, social work) along with health economics, expertise in autobiographical memory, neuropsychology, and statistics.. Methods of instruction over this five and one-half day workshop include lecture/discussion, hands on skills workshops, individual consultations with experts, and group discussions. In addition, attendees will participate in a personal adherence assessment exercise. At the end of the workshop, participants will be expected to have completed an outline of the methodology section of an interdisciplinary study on adherence to health care regimen which could be further developed in the participant's home setting. In addition, we anticipate publishing a monograph on methodologic issues in adherence research following the workshop.

1 R25 NR05098-01
JoAnne M. Youngblut
Case Western Reserve University
School of Nursing
10900 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44106

Management of asthma and diabetes mellitus in children is a significant health care challenge involving medication, surveillance and treatment regimes that have substantial impact on the child's and family's daily lives. Asthma management requires medication and often inhalation treatments several times a day, constant alertness to environmental and emotional triggers. Diabetes management generally requires multiple daily insulin injections, blood sugar monitoring and balancing daily food intake with activity levels. Although consideration of these physiologic, child, and family factors are crucial to successful clinical management of both asthma and diabetes, research on control of these illnesses has most often focused on either the physiologic, behavioral and cognitive or family approach singularly rather than on the interplay of effects. The one-week workshop, planned for June 2000, will address the need for blending these approaches by having nationally known researchers from different disciplines present the state of the science, conceptual frameworks or paradigms guiding the research, methodological issues for each approach (physiologic, behavioral and cognitive, family) to these illnesses, having researcher participants from each of the approach areas and providing structured and sufficient interaction and consultation time among researchers so that a blending of approaches is made possible in their research. Participants (N=50) interested or engaged in conducting research on control or management of asthma or diabetes in children will be recruited through interdisciplinary diabetes/asthma organizations and generic research organizations m nursing, medicine, psychology, and social work; save-the-date advertisements in appropriate journals and newsletters; and on the Case Western Reserve University Website. Evaluation of this workshop will involve two strategies. First, participants will be provided with a standard evaluation form for each session and for the overall workshop to evaluate individual speakers, sessions, and the workshop as a whole. Second, surveys will be mailed to participants in mid-August 2000. They will be asked questions about their use of the content in their own research, plans for incorporating additional approaches in future proposals, and degree of continuing contact with other workshop participants.