MICHAEL & SUSAN DELL CENTER for HEALTHY LIVING: New ...

Bob Kaplan, PhD, Associate Director from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), opened Thursday morning's sessions with a discussion of new directions for the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Science and Research (OBSSR).

After discussing a forthcoming and much needed co-branding change the NIH will undertake with its network of 27 institutes and research centers, Dr. Kaplan laid out three new directions for OBSSR:

1. Next generation of measurement and data.
2. Delivering services in a reforming healthcare system.
3. Training the next generation of behavioral and social scientists.

New technologies have given rise to the era of mHealth and unprecedented opportunities for population-level sensing,.? What is mHealth, you ask?? As Kaplan defined it, ?mHealth is a diverse set of wireless and mobile technologies designed to improve the delivery and monitoring of health.?? In the mHealth era we are able to measure a much wider range of ?exposomes? -- measures of exposure or experience over a lifetime -- to create more detailed and comprehensive life histories.? These instruments continue to evolve, becoming more effective, efficient and affordable research tools.? Look for more on these tools to come in future posts during the conference...

This year the United States will spend 17% of their GDP on healthcare, but less than 0.4% on public health.?? As we spend more and more on our health, the U.S. continues to fall behind its global competition in terms of life expectancy?falling from the 12th highest life expectancy in the world in 1960 to 45th today.? Kaplan suggested that marrying the advances in technology with evidence-based ?non-technical? practices could yield high impact while controlling costs.? For example, a simple reminder built into an iPhone application to increase blood pressure medication adherence.

A big driver in training the next generation of behavioral and social scientists might be a change to the medical school entrance exam (MCAT).? The new version of the exam, rolling out in 2015, will include a section on behavioral and social sciences.? This will push universities to offer more comprehensive training in these sciences among their pre-med students.? You can read more about the new MCAT in this recent article by Kaplan published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Written by
Brooks Ballard, MPH

The latest in research on promoting healthy diets and physical activity will be presented and discussed in Austin, Texas at the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA), which attracts over 500 researchers and professionals in research, policy and practice. The Annual Meeting presents ground-breaking studies, as well as updates on related applications of research, policy trends and legislation, via workshops, keynote speakers, panel discussions, research posters and oral presentations. Check in with our blog for regular updates throughout the conference.

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