This revised application requests support for an interdisciplinary training program in cardiovascular behavioral medicine. The focal point of the program is the basic and/or clinical research training of predoctoral students and postdoctoral fellows around two programmatic themes: risk factors and prevention, and cardiac pathophysiology. This program builds on, and will become a part of a successful, longstanding, and widely recognized graduate research training program in Medical Psychology/Behavioral Medicine at the Uniformed Services University. Students in the proposed training program will receive a strong foundation in areas of behavioral science, cardiac physiology, and cardiovascular behavioral medicine that will have an important impact on improving cardiovascular health outcomes and reducing health disparities. All program faculty members have strong, well-established research programs, track records of significant multi-disciplinary research collaboration, and substantial commitments to biomedical and behavioral research training relevant to cardiovascular disease. Primary training for the pre-doctoral students in this program occurs in the research environment. This is richly supplemented with a formal educational curriculum that has trained outstanding graduate students and fellows for over twenty years. The postdoctoral program is also based on a research apprenticeship model. Journal clubs, seminars, and conferences will significantly contribute to the social and intellectual interactions of the trainees and faculty. The present focus on interdisciplinary training meets a need identified by the NHLBI (NHLBI Task Force on Behavioral Research on Cardiovascular Lung and Blood Disease, 1998). To ensure interdisciplinary preparation, this program will uniquely provide trainees with a strong background in basic biobehavioral methods and laboratory techniques, as well as clinical applications and interventions. This will prepare trainees to be leading biobehavioral investigators who are equipped to study the role of behavior in disease outcomes, to understand the social, behavioral, and biological bases of health disparities, and thereby help reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
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