PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
On Doing It All
It is a great honor to serve as your President and a genuine pleasure to work with our talented membership. The Society of Behavioral Medicine celebrates its 30th birthday in 2009. We are old enough to have learned a thing or two, yet energetic and idealistic enough to act as a force for good. As SBM approaches this next developmental milestone, it behooves us to reflect on its history and future aspirations. In this column, I will offer my perspective. Let me also extend an open invitation to share yours. Read more >>

2008 Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions One of the Best Attended!
Dear Colleagues,
Thanks to everyone who attended the 29th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, California! We hope you enjoyed the meeting. We had over 1,400 abstracts submitted and over 1,300 attendees making this year's meeting one of the largest and most attended in the history of our Society! Keeping with the spirit of the mission of our society, the scientific sessions covered a broad range of topics within the field of behavioral medicine.  Read more >>

SBM Forms New Publications Committee
At its Fall 2007 meeting, SBM's Board of Directors approved a plan to create a new Publications Committee to serve as the advisory and oversight board for Annals of Behavioral Medicine. This decision placed SBM among the ranks of a growing number of scientific organizations that have formed publications committees to oversee their peer-reviewed journals. The committee's main mission is to foster the growth and development of Annals, and to ensure that it meets the highest standards of contemporary scientific publishing. The committee will also be involved in the selection of a new Editor-in-Chief in 2010, to replace Dr. Alan Christensen when his term ends. Read more >>

Why I am a Member of SBM
Two words - Contagious Collegiality! Read more >>

Outlook Newsletter Welcomes New Team of Assistant Editors
We are pleased to announce the addition of 13 new Assistant Editors to the Outlook team. The Assistant Editors represent many of SBM's active and growing Special Interest Groups and have been tasked with providing SIG-related content for each of the Outlook issues. Be sure to check out three articles coordinated by the Assistant Editors in this issue: 1) Limited Dollars Raise Tough Questions: Is Funding for Physical Activity Research a Case of Either/Or?; 2) The Spirituality and Health Institute (SHI) at Santa Clara University: Building Productive Collaborations on a Shoestring Budget; and 3) Terminology Primer and Exciting New Directions from the Behavioral Informatics SIG. If you have SIG-related content that you would like considered for an upcoming issue of Outlook, please contact the SIG Assistant Editor listed below.  Read more >>

The Spirituality and Health Institute (SHI) at Santa Clara University: Building Productive Collaborations on a Shoestring Budget
The Spirituality and Health SIG submitted the following description of the Spirituality and Health Institute at Santa Clara University as an example of how faculty from a variety of institutions and disciplines may come together with common interests with little expense to collaborate and discuss ideas that might result in productive projects. For a small amount of money to fund lunch, colleagues can brainstorm together as well as benefit from each other's expertise and wisdom. We hope that this article encourages others to consider how they could use this model to help enhance their research and practice through transdisciplinary and trans-institutional collaborations.   Read more >>

Limited Dollars Raise Tough Questions: Is Funding for Physical Activity Research a Case of Either/Or?
As an active member of the Physical Activity (PA) Special Interest Group (SIG) and the PA SIG Assistant Editor of Outlook, Dr. David Marquez asked two funded, respected SBM researchers to take on this question. Drs. Claudio Nigg and Barbara Resnick were asked to write mock letters to a funding agency requesting that more funding be budgeted for physical activity research for youth or older adults, respectively. In a time of increasingly limited budgets for behavioral medicine research, funds are often allocated to address specific topics or to study certain subgroups of individuals. It is an unfortunate reality for researchers at the present time, and one that warrants thoughtful consideration. The purpose of this article is to encourage SBM members to think about where they stand on this issue, and to consider arguments from the opposing viewpoint. The take home message is that this is not a question of either/or: we clearly need to advocate for funding across the entire lifespan - young and old - to optimize what we know and to promote health among Americans of all ages.   Read more >>

Terminology Primer and Exciting New Directions, from the Behavioral Informatics SIG
Behavioral Informatics (BI) exists within the broader scope of eHealth, but focuses on the intersection of technology and behavioral science.   Read more >>

NIH Public Access Policy: An Update from Springer, Publisher of SBM's Annals of Behavioral Medicine
Effective April 7, 2008, the U.S. National Institutes of Health requires their grantees to submit published research that has been funded by NIH to Pub Med Central upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available 12 months later. Springer offers two options for authors to satisfy this requirement.   Read more >>

Spotlight on Education and Training in Behavioral Medicine
The Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health (COPH) at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) provides research training in behavioral medicine and public health in a multidisciplinary academic health sciences center. The College's well-regarded faculty and research programs are evidenced by current grant funding that exceeds $29 million. Funding agencies include the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Arkansas Department of Health and the Komen Foundation.   Read more >>

Anticipating Annals
This column lists the table of contents for an upcoming issue of SBM’s journal: Annals of Behavioral Medicine. I would like to thank Alan Christensen, PhD, the Editor of Annals, and his staff for providing this information.
Cheryl Albright, PhD, MPH, Outlook Editor    Read more >>