TY - JOUR
T1 - Interdisciplinarity and Systems Science to Improve Population Health. A View from the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
AU - Mabry, Patricia L.
AU - Olster, Deborah H.
AU - Morgan, Glen D.
AU - Abrams, David B.
N1 - Funding Information:
Interdisciplinary research, one of the components of the Research Teams of the Future theme, has included several initiatives specifically targeting the behavioral and social sciences. The OBSSR-led initiatives Supplements for Methodological Innovations in the Behavioral and Social Sciences (RFA RM-04-013) 64 and Meetings and Networks for Methodological Development in Interdisciplinary Research (RFA RM-04-014) 65 supported research on dietary intake, physical activity, child development, stress–immune interactions, environmental exposures, treatment decision making, patient quality of life, gene–environment interactions, pain, and aging. Seven postdoctoral institutional-training grants were awarded under another NIH Roadmap initiative, Interdisciplinary Health Research Training: Behavior, Environment and Biology (RFA RM-05-010). 66 These programs provide formal coursework and research training in a new interdisciplinary field for individuals holding advanced degrees in a different discipline. The Exploratory Centers for Interdisciplinary Research (RFA RM-04-004) 67 program is supporting the centers that are investigating cognition, elder self-neglect, or youth vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies. Another center focuses on the pathways through which the environment, genetic, and psychosocial domains jointly shape child health and well-being. A 2007 initiative, Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research via Methodological and Technological Innovation in the Behavioral and Social Sciences (RFA RM-07-004), 68 supports the development of new and innovative measures, methods, and technologies that underlie the interdisciplinary integration of human social science, behavioral science, or both, with other disciplines across varying levels of analysis. Links to descriptions of the projects funded under these and other interdisciplinary NIH Roadmap initiatives can be found on the NIH Roadmap website ( www.nihroadmap.nih.gov/interdisciplinary/fundedresearch.asp ).
PY - 2008/8
Y1 - 2008/8
N2 - Fueled by the rapid pace of discovery, humankind's ability to understand the ultimate causes of preventable common disease burdens and to identify solutions is now reaching a revolutionary tipping point. Achieving optimal health and well-being for all members of society lies as much in the understanding of the factors identified by the behavioral, social, and public health sciences as by the biological ones. Accumulating advances in mathematical modeling, informatics, imaging, sensor technology, and communication tools have stimulated several converging trends in science: an emerging understanding of epigenomic regulation; dramatic successes in achieving population health-behavior changes; and improved scientific rigor in behavioral, social, and economic sciences. Fostering stronger interdisciplinary partnerships to bring together the behavioral-social-ecologic models of multilevel "causes of the causes" and the molecular, cellular, and, ultimately, physiological bases of health and disease will facilitate breakthroughs to improve the public's health. The strategic vision of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is rooted in a collaborative approach to addressing the complex and multidimensional issues that challenge the public's health. This paper describes OBSSR's four key programmatic directions (next-generation basic science, interdisciplinary research, systems science, and a problem-based focus for population impact) to illustrate how interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives can foster the vertical integration of research among biological, behavioral, social, and population levels of analysis over the lifespan and across generations. Interdisciplinary and multilevel approaches are critical both to the OBSSR's mission of integrating behavioral and social sciences more fully into the NIH scientific enterprise and to the overall NIH mission of utilizing science in the pursuit of fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to extend healthy life and reduce the burdens of illness and disability.
AB - Fueled by the rapid pace of discovery, humankind's ability to understand the ultimate causes of preventable common disease burdens and to identify solutions is now reaching a revolutionary tipping point. Achieving optimal health and well-being for all members of society lies as much in the understanding of the factors identified by the behavioral, social, and public health sciences as by the biological ones. Accumulating advances in mathematical modeling, informatics, imaging, sensor technology, and communication tools have stimulated several converging trends in science: an emerging understanding of epigenomic regulation; dramatic successes in achieving population health-behavior changes; and improved scientific rigor in behavioral, social, and economic sciences. Fostering stronger interdisciplinary partnerships to bring together the behavioral-social-ecologic models of multilevel "causes of the causes" and the molecular, cellular, and, ultimately, physiological bases of health and disease will facilitate breakthroughs to improve the public's health. The strategic vision of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is rooted in a collaborative approach to addressing the complex and multidimensional issues that challenge the public's health. This paper describes OBSSR's four key programmatic directions (next-generation basic science, interdisciplinary research, systems science, and a problem-based focus for population impact) to illustrate how interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives can foster the vertical integration of research among biological, behavioral, social, and population levels of analysis over the lifespan and across generations. Interdisciplinary and multilevel approaches are critical both to the OBSSR's mission of integrating behavioral and social sciences more fully into the NIH scientific enterprise and to the overall NIH mission of utilizing science in the pursuit of fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to extend healthy life and reduce the burdens of illness and disability.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.amepre.2008.05.018
DO - 10.1016/j.amepre.2008.05.018
M3 - Review article
C2 - 18619402
AN - SCOPUS:46449111414
SN - 0749-3797
VL - 35
SP - S211-S224
JO - American journal of preventive medicine
JF - American journal of preventive medicine
IS - 2 SUPPL.
ER -