This proposal will fund the NHLBI CVD Epi Training Program in Behavior, the Environment, and Global Health, critically important scientific disciplines that remain under-represented in NHLBI training. This Program will train 3 pre-doctoral and 4 post-doctoral trainees each year in the rich academic environment of the Harvard School of Public Health and affiliated institutions locally and worldwide, bringing together outstanding faculty Mentors to provide integrated and interdisciplinary experiences and collaborative interactions, specialized curriculum with core and elective coursework, nondidactic practical career training, individual candidate training plans, and ongoing Program evaluation. Cutting-edge didactic training and mentoring will create a new generation of highly skilled and enthusiastic investigators to study the impact of behavioral and environmental risk factors on cardiometabolic diseases; to elucidate the cultural norms, genomic variation, and biologic and sociologic pathways that modify these risk factors; and to understand and utilize the full set of epidemiologic, interventional, environmental, and policy tools to design, implement, and evaluate the most effective individualized, community, and policy interventions to reduce impact of harmful risk factors, facilitate expansion of protective behavioral and environmental factors, and attenuate or reverse the alarming global trends in cardiometabolic diseases. Training will include modern methodological and analytical techniques required to study the intersections of cardiometabolic diseases with Behavior, including observational epidemiology and interventions in adulthood, adolescence, and early life; the Environment, including airborne and environmental toxins, social risks, and physical (built) environment; and Global Health, including observational epidemiology, demography, comparative risk assessment, and controlled interventions at both individual and community levels. This Training Program adds considerable strength and depth to the NHLBI's commitment to understanding the behavioral and environmental determinants, preventive measures, and treatments of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in both developed and developing nations.
Training a new generation of investigators to understand how behavioral and environmental risk factors impact cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, and how to cost-effectively and sustain ably modify these factors, is among the most important scientific tasks of our time. These are global challenges, as changing behaviors and environmental risks are rapidly increasing cardiovascular and metabolic diseases worldwide and widespread use of costly new drug- and device-related treatments may not be practical or cost-effective.
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