Winter 2025

Editor's Note

As we step together into another new year, let today’s issue of Outlook encourage and inspire you with articles that exemplify SBM’s leadership in research, policy, career development, and the community.

Society of Behavioral Medicine Expands Health Policy Ambassador Program with Two New Focus Areas

In May 2025, Society of Behavioral Medicine expanded its Health Policy Ambassador Program with the launch of two new ambassador groups: NIH Funding and Infectious Disease Prevention and Care. These additions reflect both the evolving policy landscape and the critical need for behavioral scientists to play an active role in shaping decisions that affect public health. As federal attention intensifies around research investment and infectious disease preparedness, these ambassadors will help ensure that rigorous science and on-the-ground expertise remain central to policy conversations.

Maternal Morbidity and Mortality: The Overlooked Role of Sleep

The United States continues to face a maternal health crisis. It ranks poorest in maternal morbidity and mortality outcomes among developed countries and statistics are even worse for birthing people of color, particularly Black pregnant and postpartum people.

Empowering Parents: A Practical Guide to Helping Parents and Children Navigate Online Misinformation

“Paradox of progress” refers to the idea that as technology and access to scientific information improve, misinformation has spread more easily. While scientists understand that it is normal and natural for scientific evidence to evolve over time, sometimes how these changes are communicated to the public increases confusion, fear, and distrust in science.

Promoting Healthy Aging among Older Adults through Food Assistance Advocacy

Food security is a cornerstone of healthy aging. With an aging population and policy changes on the horizon, ensuring food security for older adults will require more of our collective efforts to promote moving forward.

The Expanding Scope of Palliative Care and Hospice: The Need for Behavioral Medicine Integration

Twentieth-century advancements in safety intersected with innovations in prevention, diagnosis and treatment to significantly extend lifespans. As result, many people who would have died after acute injury or infection instead live for extended periods of time with serious and life-threatening illnesses that involve pain, somatic symptoms, cognitive complaints, and psychological distress.

Digital Strategies for Research Dissemination: Reflections from the Obesity & Eating Disorders SIG

Digital dissemination is increasingly central to the reach and impact of behavioral medicine. Yet most researchers were trained to publish peer-reviewed papers and present at conferences, not to communicate findings to the public in real time. As a result, dissemination to those outside the research community can feel unfamiliar or like something that happens only after a project is complete.

Harnessing Artificial Intelligence Responsibly: Advancing Scientific Publishing Amid New Challenges

Many academic publishers such as OUP have formulated LLM guidelines to assist authors, reviewers, and editors to make responsible, appropriate, and transparent judgements about the ethical use of such technology. In these guidelines, ‘AI’ refers to applications, tools, and programs using AI.

Addressing Your Grant Writing Training Needs: An Update from the Scientific Education Council

The Scientific Education Council (SEC) is responsible for supporting members’ scientific pursuits through education, training, and events, including at the Annual Meeting. Over the past year, the SEC took a closer look at members’ grant writing training needs, specifically, and how SBM can best meet them.