Scientific and Professional Liaison Council

The Scientific & Professional Liaison Council develops and fosters joint interdisciplinary programs and services with other professional organizations.

Scientific & Professional Liaison Council Chair: Sara J. Knight, PhD

Liaisons

Veterans Health Administration
The SPLC has activity pursued the development of the liaison with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA). These efforts have resulted in accomplishments including:

Brian Mittman, PhD, Director of the VHA Resource Center on Implementation Research, has accepted an invitation to provide a Master Lecture on Implementation Science at the 2011 annual meeting.
Contact with the Veterans Health Administration Office of Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) leadership has been made and the Directors and Scientific Portfolio Managers have been invited to attend the SBM 2011 annual meeting in Washington, DC.
Special issue of Translational Behavioral Medicine: Practice, Policy, Research on VHA in development. Dr. Robert Kerns and Dr. Sara Knight are serving as co-editors of this issue. A preliminary list of invited contributions, draft of call for papers, and proposed outline are completed and under review.
Dr. Knight and Dr. Kerns met with Dr. Linda Kinsinger and Dr. Ken Jones from the VHA Office of Patient Care Services regarding the hiring of behavioral medicine professionals for the MOVE program, a national intervention to increase physical activity among Veterans. The group discussed the potential for collaborative activities.
Dr. Goodrich organized and wrote an article on the VA liaison for the fall issue of Outlook. This article focused on the MOVE program as an example of the implementation of behavioral medicine in VHA.
Dr. Knight worked with Dr. Teresa Damush to encourage the submission of an annual meeting panel on implementation science efforts in VHA. The abstracts for this panel were submitted for review for the 2011 annual meeting. If accepted, this panel will provide an outstanding illustration of the implementation of evidence-based behavioral medicine interventions in the VHA to complement Dr. Mittman’s Master Lecture on implementation science.

Society for Medical Decision Making
SPLC representatives met with SMDM leaders including the Executive Director and the SMDM President to discuss annual meeting plans. Members of the SBM Health Decision Making SIG have developed a panel for the SBM 2011 Annual Meeting on results from the “Decisions” study. The invited speakers on the panel will be funded by the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making.

American Health Association
The SPLC has identified a number of American Health Association (AHA) initiatives that are relevant to SBM. Several SBM members are serving in leadership roles in AHA councils on nutrition, physical activity, and metabolism. The SPLC is looking for opportunities for AHA/SBM programs on these topics at annual meetings and joint papers.

American Public Health Association
Discussions with the leadership within this organization have started and potential collaborative activities have been identified.

American College of Sports Medicine
Dr. Goodrich has organized several liaison events relevant to ACSM and the Physical Activity SIG of the APHA. A major accomplishment from these efforts was the SPLC meeting with the National Cancer Institute, ACSM, and APHA representatives at the SBM 2010 Annual Meeting in Seattle.

American Medical Informatics Association
This liaison has accomplished a highly successful preconference day at the 2010 SBM Annual Meeting. The session was funded by the National Cancer Institute. A companion session was then held at the 2010 AMIA annual meeting in October.

American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACPR)
Discussions with the leadership within this organization have started and potential collaborative activities have been identified.

American Pain Society
SPLC member, Dr. Martin Cheatle developed two highly successful symposia that represented the APS liaison that were presented at the 2010 SBM Annual Meeting. He has submitted new program, contributions representing the APS for review, for the 2011 SBM Annual Meeting. Dr. Cheatle organized a meeting with the leadership of APS in May 2010 and APS leaders are enthusiastic.