Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research National Institutes of Health

May 3-8, 2009
OBSSR Holds First Institute on Systems Science and Health

OBSSR and CDC teamed up to produce the first Institute on Systems Science and Health (ISSH) which was held May 3-8, 2009.

March 06, 2009
OBSSR Hosts Conference on Dissemination, Implementation

Harvard Medical School’s
Dr. Jim Yong Kim

As a way to improve public health in a battered world, understanding poverty counts as much as knowing how proteins fold.

November 20, 2009,
3:00 PM to 4:00 PM
The Challenges and Opportunities of Interdisciplinary Research: The Case of Genetics and Demography

December 2, 2009,
8:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m
SYMPOSIUM #2: EDUCATION

November 9, 2009
Understanding and Promoting Community-Based Participatory Research at the National Institutes of Health,
Philadelphia, PA

March 15 – 16, 2010
3rd Annual NIH Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation: Methods and Measurement

CALL FOR PROPOSALS DEADLINE: November 6, 2009, 5:00 pm Pacific Time

Registration now open until February 12, 2010

July 11-23, 2010
9th Annual Summer Institute on Design and Conduct of Randomized Clinical Trials (RCT) Involving Behavioral Interventions,

Application Deadline: January 15, 2010

More Events >>

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BSSR in the News

NIH’s Role in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)

NIH is well positioned to fund the best science in pursuit of improving the length and the quality of the lives of our citizens, while at the same time stimulating the economy. NIH conducts and supports outstanding biomedical and behavioral research, through more than 3,000 institutions across the country-- institutions that have a direct impact upon the local economies in their towns, cities, and states. Continued…
OBSSR Challenge Topics

A New Era for Basic Behavioral Research at NIH
November 2009 APS Observer

A sustained effort launched by the Association for Psychological Science (APS) has resulted in an unprecedented boost for basic behavioral science at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the form of a cross-cutting structure — the NIH Basic Behavioral and Social Science Opportunity Network, or OppNet — that will fund $120 million of research through 2014. Continued…

NIH-CDC Panel Makes Recommendations to Guide Personal Genomics Research
August 2009

The increasing availability of personal genomic tests has led to discussions about the validity and utility of such tests and the balance of benefits and harms. Consumers now can obtain personal genome profiles on their own, yet the research basis for using them in risk assessment, health promotion, and disease prevention is not well developed.

To address this concern, a panel of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made recommendations on targeted research to build an evidence base for the clinical validity and utility of personal genomics. These recommendations were developed at the NIH-CDC workshop in December 2008 to close the gap between discoveries and health impact. The OBSSR provided financial support and participated in the workshop, alongside a diverse and multidisciplinary group of participants, including representatives from academia, industries involved in personal genome profiles, and advocacy groups.

These recommendations, which have been published in the August issue of Genetics in Medicine, are in five domains: (1) developing and applying scientific standards for assessing personal genomic tests; (2) developing and applying a multidisciplinary research agenda, including observational studies and clinical trials to fill knowledge gaps in clinical validity and utility; (3) enhancing credible knowledge synthesis and information dissemination to clinicians and consumers; (4) linking scientific findings to evidence-based recommendations for use of personal genomics; and (5) assessing how the concept of personal utility can affect health benefits, costs, and risks by developing appropriate metrics for evaluation. To fulfill the promise of personal genomics, a rigorous multidisciplinary research agenda is needed.

OBSSR Holds First Institute on Systems Science and Health
May 3-8, 2009

OBSSR and CDC teamed up to produce the first Institute on Systems Science and Health (ISSH) which was held May 3-8, 2009. ISSH was a one week course designed to give students a broad overview of systems science methodologies as well as hands on training in one of three specific systems science methodologies: agent based modeling, system dynamic modeling, or network analysis. ISSH was hosted by the University of Michigan’s Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health and its Center for the Study of Complexity. Students were selected through a competitive process, and more than three times as many applicants applied as there were slots available. The forty-six participants who attended ranged in educational level, from pre-doctoral to full professor, and represented a variety of disciplines including public health, medicine, epidemiology, social work, psychology, and geography, Thirty faculty and speakers provided education through lectures, exercises and discussions. Plenary talks were filmed and will soon be available to the general public as webcasts and podcasts. OBSSR plans to make this an annual event.

Sex, Drugs and Viral Load: Integrating HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment
April 3, 2009 NIH Record

A major challenge in the ongoing battle against HIV/AIDS is preventing those who are already infected from transmitting the virus to others. With advances in treatments for HIV infection and other opportunistic illnesses, more people are living longer and healthier lives with HIV. The downside of this otherwise good news is that the time period for an individual’s ability to infect others is growing and too many HIV-positive individuals erroneously believe that their infectivity diminishes as their viral load decreases during effective therapy. As many as 35 percent of HIV-positive individuals report engaging in high-risk sexual behaviors. Continued…

Special Issue on Light and Intermittent Smokers
March 21, 2009

OBSSR, NCI, NIDA, the American Legacy Foundation in collaboration with Nicotine and Tobacco Research are pleased to announce the release of the Special Issue on Light and Intermittent Smokers, published in Vol 11, Number 2, February, 2009.

This special issue stems from a meeting hosted by Legacy and NIH during the fall of 2005. A small group of researchers were convened to discuss the state of knowledge on light and intermittent smokers and to outline areas for future research. Research priorities were published in an executive summary. The papers published in this special issue address some of the research questions highlighted in the executive summary and prompt additional action for the field. The 2008 PHS guidelines also call for more research on light smokers.

The mission of the NIH Tobacco and Nicotine Research Interest Group is to increase collaboration, coordination and communication of tobacco- and nicotine-related research across NIH Institutes and Centers and with other DHHS agencies. Continued…

National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR)
March 06, 2009

A new National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) was launched on February 19, 2009 to accelerate progress on reversing the epidemic of overweight and obesity among U.S. youth. The initiative brings together three of the nation’s leading research funders – the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) – to address the problem of childhood obesity in America. OBSSR is a founding member of NCCOR and provides both financial and program support.

The mission of the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) is to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and application of childhood obesity research and to halt—and reverse—the current childhood obesity trend through enhanced coordination and collaboration.

NCCOR accelerates progress to reduce childhood obesity in the United States by:

maximizing outcomes from research
building the capacity for research and surveillance
creating and supporting the mechanisms and infrastructure needed for research translation and dissemination
supporting evaluations

For more information about NCCOR, including webinars and funding opportunities, please visit http://www.nccor.org

OBSSR Hosts Conference on Dissemination, Implementation
March 06, 2009 NIH Record

Kim urged investments in implementation research.

As a way to improve public health in a battered world, understanding poverty counts as much as knowing how proteins fold. That’s why translational research doesn’t stop at new drugs and vaccines. It includes delivering interventions to those who need them most.

“Global health is suffering from a huge implementation bottleneck…and we’re not doing so well in implementation in the United States,” said Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Jim Yong Kim, plenary speaker at OBSSR’s 2nd annual conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation: Building Research Capacity to Bridge the Gap from Science to Service. Continued…

Research Funders Collaborate To Reduce Childhood Obesity
March 06, 2009 NIH Record

A new National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) was launched Feb. 19 to accelerate progress on reversing the epidemic of overweight and obesity among U.S. youth. The initiative brings together the expertise and resources of NIH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

Current NCCOR members at NIH include the Division of Nutrition Research Coordination, NCI, NHLBI, NICHD, NIDDK and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research.

NCCOR aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of research on childhood obesity. It will evaluate new and existing prevention approaches, rapidly assess promising policy changes and speed the application of interventions that work. Continued…

What men can learn from women: Tough-guy attitude leads to gender health disparity
December 29, 2008 by Stephen Smith, The Boston Globe (Boston.com)

They are icons of American masculinity. The athlete, banged and bruised, who plays through pain. The soldier, wounded and bedraggled, who battles on, spurning entreaties to seek help. The male driver, lost and confused, who refuses to ask for directions. Continued…

Retreat Refreshes Behavioral, Social Sciences
December 12, 2008 NIH Record

Dr. Richard Suzman (r), director of the Behavioral and Social Science Program
at NIA, moderates the panel discussion during OBSSR’s Nov. 12 retreat.

Dr. Christine Bachrach, acting director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, wanted just one thing out of the first-ever day-long retreat for NIH’s widely dispersed community of behavioral and social scientists, held Nov. 12 at Natcher Bldg. “We have a gold mine of behavioral and social science research talent at NIH, but we are scattered and very busy. We need strong connecting networks to find out who has what kind of expertise, and what the opportunities are,” she said. “I hope the retreat empowers and connects the field. I hope attendees find collaborations and conversations they need to do their jobs effectively. This is a time of great opportunity and challenge. Behavior is a critical issue in diseases that drive up health care costs and kill people.” Continued…

CBT4CBT New Hope for Treatment of Addiction
December 12, 2008 NIH Record

Dr. Kathleen Carroll

Drug addiction is notoriously tough to treat, but now research is showing a fresh way to tackle the problem. It’s called computer-based training for cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT4CBT), an innovative program developed by Yale University School of Medicine’s Dr. Kathleen Carroll and her colleagues. She recently visited NIH to discuss her research with a full house at Executive Plaza’s Neuroscience Bldg. Her talk was part of OBSSR’s Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Lecture Series.

“When I began [my research, funded by NIDA],” Carroll said, “it wasn’t clear which therapies were effective or how they worked.

We had to get very serious if it was going to be taken seriously in some of the same ways as pharmacotherapy.”

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a kind of “talk therapy” that focuses on patterns of thinking, the beliefs that underlie them and how they influence behavior and emotions. It tends to be goal-directed rather than open-ended. Continued…

OBSSR Retreat: Behavioral and Social Scientists Map Course in the Era of the Genome
November-December 2008 The NIH Catalyst

The mantra “bench to bedside” conjures up many images, but perhaps not one of a bedside scene with a father reading Curious George to his child at nighttime. On the NIH campus, where the focus traditionally has been on biomedical research, this concept may come across as an eye-opener: Translational research may not require lab coats and microscopes, catheters and IV clamps. Continued…

OBSSR's Mabry Wins with Systems Analysis Team
October 3, 2008 NIH Record

The CDC-NIH System Dynamics Collaborative for Disease Control and Prevention recently received the inaugural Applied Systems Thinking Prize awarded by the Applied Systems Thinking Institute (ASysT). The nine-member winning team includes Dr. Patricia Mabry of NIH’s Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. Continued…

3rd Annual Matilda White Riley Lecture Looking for Causes in all the Wrong Places
June 19, 2008 NIH Videocast

Dr. John McKinlay (l)
and Dr. Christine Bachrach (r)

Upstream Social Determinants of Downstream Health Disparities
John McKinlay, Ph.D., New England Research Institutes
Building 1, Wilson Hall Continued…

Health Disparity Paper Spurs Debate
January 25, 2008 NIH Record

When JAMA published an article in May 2006 reporting that Americans in late middle age are “sicker” than their English counterparts, there was a swift, intense reaction. “How could this be?” wrote a columnist in the Washington Post. “The British diet is terrible.” And, “Forget vitamin D: The English rarely see the sun in a dank climate where the national dress is a raincoat.” But according to Dr. James Smith, a study coauthor and senior economist with the RAND Corp. who shared this quote in a recent presentation here, the findings are true. In fact, even as critics have posed potential issues with the report, further study has only made the case for the article stronger, Smith believes. Continued…

OBSSR Holds First Dissemination Conference
January 11, 2008 NIH Record

The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research recently hosted a conference on Building the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in the Service of Public Health. Held in partnership with NIMH, NCI, NIDA, NIAAA and NICHD, the 2-day conference gathered Continued…an 500 people attending in person and hundreds Continued…ewing the simultaneous webcast. Continued…

Cancer patients find strength in numbers
January, 7 2008 By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY

There's wide agreement that good mental health and relationships can lengthen a person's life by motivating more healthful behavior, says David Abrams, who heads the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research at the National Institutes of Health. Continued…

Benner Named OBSSR Communications Specialist
October 5, 2007 NIH Record

Ann Benner has been named communications specialist for the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. In this newly created position, she will be responsible for developing a strategic plan to best communicate the cutting-edge research and discoveries in the behavioral and social sciences. Continued…

Meissner Joins OBSSR as Senior Advisor
October 5, 2007 NIH Record

Dr. Helen Meissner has been named senior advisor in the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. She will be responsible for social, public health and population science-based initiatives. Continued…

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