President's Message: Your Partner for the Year Ahead

Robert L. Newton, Jr., PhD, FSBM - SBM President

As I compose my inaugural President’s Message, I want to first express that it is truly an honor to serve as your President. It was not a position that I had any notion of holding when I first attended SBM in 1996 – that’s another story for another time - but it is one that I take very seriously.

I want to cover two topics in this message: the 2027 Annual Meeting theme and the current National Institutes of Health (NIH) environment.

The 2027 Annual Meeting planning will be guided by our theme: “Partnerships that Produce.” It has been known for some time that we as scientists cannot do the best work alone; we have to form partnerships with those who have different expertise, different resources, and different perspectives. Our science is moving more and more toward how to instill our evidence-based interventions into society in order to have broader reach and greater impact. The theme is designed to highlight research that involves relevant engaged partners, such as community members, health care organizations, urban planners, engineers, policy makers, technology companies, etc. The theme embraces knowledge and positive health outcomes gained from these partnerships. It encompasses implementation science, community-based participatory research, technology-based interventions, and collaborations in which the engaged partner plays a critical role in the conceptualization, development, and/or administration of the project or initiative. And of course, the theme encompasses work that utilizes AI to improve health. While it is important to showcase collaborations that have shown positive, lasting health benefits, it will also be important to understand how partnerships are developed and maintained. Therefore, both the health outcomes and partnership process are important. This purposely broad and inclusive theme will allow many different partnerships to be highlighted.

The year ahead seems like it will provide many challenges related to federal funding. As of the writing of this message, the presidential budget request proposes cuts to NIH funding and the dissolution of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. A proposed rule change from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) seeks to further politicize grant funding decisions and restrict usage of federal grant dollars for publications, membership dues, and conference attendance. Rest assured that SBM continues to stay abreast of these events and is taking action. Recently, a cadre of SBM Policy Ambassadors met with Congress members or their aides to discuss these issues. SBM had very specific asks related to funding, peer review, and issues that impact health (e.g., SNAP funding reductions). In addition, SBM continues to sign on to letters to Congress expressing the potential impacts of these changes.

I personally believe that these changes will be detrimental to science. Therefore, I encourage all of us to fight against these changes. Specific to the OMB proposal, SBM has used our June Ambassador updates to give members tools to submit comments directly to OMB, and I want to reiterate the message. Please provide OMB with comments (Submit your own comment here.). It is vitally important to make these comments personal by expressing how the changes will impact YOUR science and your career. The July 13 deadline is rapidly approaching. And remember, your comments can be anonymous. SBM will be submitting formal comments as well.

In the year ahead, there will be more battles to fight. We are here to wage them in partnership with you. We are in this together.