The Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) will hold its 28 annual meeting in April 2007 in Miami Beach, FL. SBM is the nation's premier multi-disciplinary organization dedicated to behavioral medicine, representing over 2,800 behavioral and biomedical researchers and clinicians including many of the nation's leading cancer prevention and control researchers. SBM's annual meetings represent the largest annual scientific sessions devoted exclusively to behavioral medicine, and are regarded as a forum for the field's most important and influential research and practice. The multidisciplinary membership of SBM provides a range of expertise that spans research in basic and biobehavioral mechanisms, applied cancer screening, health communication and informatics, health promotion, epidemiology, surveillance, health services, cancer survivorship, and diffusion and dissemination. SBM researchers, individually and in strategic partnerships with community and government agencies, are working to address key priority areas in Healthy People 2010. Each year a substantial proportion of SBM's annual program explicitly addresses cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and survivorship issues. In addition, a large portion of program covers cross-cutting issues relevant to numerous health conditions (e.g., adherence, translation of research to practice, lifespan, diversity/minority health). The primary aims of SBM's annual meeting are: 1) To provide a forum for the exchange of new research and clinical data on the interactions of health and behavior;2) To provide in-depth presentations on recent advances in behavioral interventions for health improvement;3) To increase the scientific exchange between researchers and clinicians;4) To address behavioral medicine's role in the changing health care environment;5) To examine strategies for facilitating the application of research evidence to clinical practice and public health programs;and 6) To promote the development of new interdisciplinary education and training efforts in behavioral medicine. This proposal seeks funding for the next five years (2007-2011) for programming that addresses the broad vision of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) in reducing the burden of cancer through discovery, development, and delivery of innovative and comprehensive cancer prevention and control strategies. Consistent with the major themes of the NIH Roadmap, grant funds would enable the Society to: 1) recruit outstanding basic scientists and informatics/technology experts to address New Pathways to Discovery in behavioral medicine;2) feature Research Teams of the Future that are developing and testing new models of transdisciplinary team science that extend beyond traditional boundaries of collaboration;and 3) disseminate findings about effective partnerships in translating scientific discoveries into meaningful treatments and interventions, and provide conference activities geared toward training the next generation of behavioral medicine scientists to Re-energize the Clinical Research Enterprise.
