• News from the Editor
• Letter from the President
• News from the Editor-in-Chief of IJBM
• Interview with Brian Oldenburg
• Early Career Network
• Report from the ICBM in Washington 2010
• Awardees
• News from the ISBM Member Societies
  

News from the Editor

Interview with Brian Oldenburg

Q1. Brian, first of all, thank you so much for
agreeing to be the third interviewee in this series. This special series covers individuals who are long-term members of ISBM and have contributed to behavioral medicine in a significant manner. Could you briefly outline your involvement in behavioral medicine as a professional field and your current scientific interests?

A1. It’s interesting now that I look back over my professional working life, I realize that I’ve actually been involved in the field of behavioral medicine for much longer than I was even aware of at the time. I would say that I started undertaking behavioral medicine research in the late 1970’s, however, I didn’t call it that and nor did I attend my first ‘real’ behavioral medicine conference until 1987, when I made a poster presentation at the 8th Annual Meeting of US Society of Behavioral Medicine in Washington D.C, USA. With that poster, I was presenting some of my earlier doctoral research findings concerning the psychosocial aspects of end-stage renal disease and I had used Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for one of my measures. A very well spoken man came up to my poster and started to interrogate me on my study and how I had actually used these scales; however, he did not introdue himself to me at that stage. After talking to me for more than 15 minutes – and for what seemed like an eternity - he finally said to me, ‘‘I’m Charlie Spielberger’’ and I was then very embarrassed because I hadn’t known who I had been talking to for all that time! That experience had a big impact on me and made me realise that no matter how important you are in this world, it’s always very important to talk to and interact with students and early career researchers about their research and their career development.

My current scientific interests mainly focus on investigating new and novel ways to prevent and manage chronic non-communicable diseases and their risk factors and determinants. However, I would say that over the years, my research on how to improve health and wellbeing has gradually moved more and more ‘upstream’ and more of my research now focuses on the health of ‘populations’ rather than individuals. I’ve also become increasingly interested in policy, social and environmental interventions as a way of influencing people’s health, particularly in disadvantaged and vulnerable populations. I am also doing a lot of research in developing countries and regions in the world, particularly in China and Southern Africa, so I spend almost half of each year travelling and working in other countries now. For example, I’m currently involved in research related to chronic disease prevention and management trials in Malaysia, China, India and South Africa.

Q2. Could you please tell us about your educational and scientific background? Where do you come from scientifically and how did you get into the emerging field of behavioral medicine?

A2. I first graduated in psychology in 1975 from University of NSW (UNSW) in Sydney,Australia. The UNSW School of Psychology was still a very new school when I commenced there in 1972 and it had just established one of the very first behavior therapy training programs outside the USA. That was a very exciting time to do psychology because there was so much new research being undertaken and there was also a superb community psychology program that had recently been established, by one of my earliest mentors, Robin Winkler.

At the same time as studying psychology, I also did another major in sociology, so I graduated with a double major in both sociology and psychology. Soon after that, I then undertook a Masters of Clinical Psychology also at UNSW, because at that time, I thought I would really like to be a clinical psychologist working in mental health services and I wanted to start applying all of these very exciting new behavior therapy techniques to help people. However, after working overseas for a couple of years and coming back to Australia, I actually found myself working at one of the best university teaching hospitals in Sydney, The Prince Henry & Prince of Wales Hospitals, that had just established a new Department of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry to provide mental health services to the general wards of the hospital.

For the first time in my professional working life, I found myself working mainly in the medical and surgical wards of a hospital. Because many excellent clinical and other research units were co-located at this hospital, this also brought me into contact with some of the best Australian researchers in the fields of high blood pressure, renal disease and heart disease. I became so interested in clinical medical research that I decided that I really wanted to undertake more formal training in medical research and epidemiology. So, my next step was to commence a Ph.D. research program and I was jointly supervised by a Professor of Psychiatry (Gavin Andrews) and a Professor of Renal Medicine (Graham Macdonald), both of whom became terrific and lifelong mentors for me.

As I said at the beginning of this interview, I realise now that I look back on the research I was undertaking in the early 1980’s, I was actually doing behavioral medicine research, but there were not very many psychologists doing this kind of research in Australia at that time, so I didn’t actually know what to call the field that I was researching! My doctoral research examined the complex interplay among behavioral, psychosocial and biological influences on fluid non-compliance in people who were undergoing renal dialysis. I also begun to start publishing in journals at this time and I conducted my very first ‘real’ clinical trial. As timewent on, I became more and more interested in epidemiology (and the related public health sciences) and I realised that a background and training in the social and behavioral sciences was really perfect for understanding epidemiology and biostatistics. Following the completion of my Ph.D. in 1987, I spent some time overseas and met many of the “rising stars” in US behavioral medicine and public health at that time. As I think back to that time in US, probably the four people who had the most long term impact on me were Jim Sallis at San Diego State University, Bob Kaplan who was at University of California (San Diego) at that time, Tom Coates at University of California (San Francisco) and Steve Weiss who was still at US NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at that time.

By the time I returned to Australia, I really knew that I wanted a career in public health and behavioral medicine research, but I really didn’t know where I was going to be able to do this! However, due to a fortuitous set of circumstances, I got my first full time research and academic position in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney in 1988. Since that time, I have continued to work in Schools of Public Health around Australia along with a number of short stints with other academic and research groups, mainly in the Netherlands (University of Leiden and Maastricht University) and USA. I left Sydney University in 1994 and moved to become the Head of a relatively new but rapidly developing School of Public Health in Queensland in Australia and in 2006, I move to the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne, where I am currently, Professor and Inaugural Chair of International Public Health at that university.

Q3. Do you think that behavioral medicine as a field is picking up on trends from other related fields, such as psychology or internal medicine, or do you think that behavioral medicine is setting trends which influence other areas as well (or both)? Can you provide examples?

A3. I find this quite a hard question to answer because I really think the field of behavioral medicine is so inter-disciplinary that it is very hard to disentangle the causal chain and links with so many other fields and disciplines! However, I do think it is probably the case that behavioral medicine is more and more influenced by developments in other underpinning disciplines and fields. For example, as we come to understand the role and importance of social and environmental influences on health, we now (almost) take it for granted that behavioral medicine interventions need to focus more on social and environmental influences in relation to health outcomes than was the case even 10 or 15 years ago. I am also particularly interested in the inter-play between behavioral medicine and public health research. I also find epidemiologists and biostatisticians can be lot of fun to work with and I really enjoy the multi-disciplinarity of both behavioral medicine and public health. Although I spent many years training and working in psychology, and collaborating with many psychologists over the years, I often say that I have never worked in an academic department of psychology and I don’t know that I have ever really “missed” that experience. Indeed, although I still collaborate with psychologists from many different countries around the world, I would say that most of the psychologists I collaborate with are also based in Schools of Public Health and/or are part of very multi-disciplinary research teams.

Q4. You are a long-standing member of ISBM and you have been part of the editorial board of the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. What were the most significant milestones in the development of both the society and the journal over time in your eyes?

A4. Before I answer this question, I must say that it was so very important for me to attend and to be part of the very first International Congress of Behavioral Medicine in Uppsala, Sweden in 1990. I have been to every ICBM since then and so many of my research and other collaborations, as well as my personal and professional relationships, can be ‘mapped’ back to people I have met as a result of our congresses and other ISBM activities. For example, it is through my involvement with ISBM and US SBM that I have met and then been able to develop long term collaborations with colleagues in Sweden (Gunilla Burrell), Finland (Pekka Puska, Antti Uutela and Pilvikki Absetz), US (eg. Jim Sallis, Bob Kaplan, Karen Glanz, Ed Fisher, Barr Taylor) and many others.

From my point of view, I would say that there are three standout ISBM developments. Firstly, it has been really great to see the establishment of so many excellent national/ regional behavioral medicine societies and many of those are now outside Western Europe and USA. This includes the development of relatively new societies in Asia, Australia/ New Zealand and Latin America. The second really exciting development has been to see how our International Congress of Behavioral Medicine has become such a terrific conference and a wonderful place to meet long standing colleagues and friends every 2 years in a different part of the world. Thirdly, it is so wonderful to see how the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine has gradually become such an important and influential global behavioral medicine journal. I strongly believe that ‘behavioral medicine’ will become even stronger as a global field when we can demonstrate even more convincingly the important contribution of this field to the health and well-being of people in the less developed regions of the world.

Q5. You served as our society’s President from 1998 to 2000, and you were the Program Committee Chair for the sixth ICBM. I can imagine that these two positions hold particular challenges. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

A5. I am not sure you really want to know about ALL the challenges! However, I always find it an honour to serve in leadership roles as President of a society and/or as Congress Program Chair for an international conference. Of course, there are always significant challenges with such roles, particularly with any international or global organization, buton the other hand, such roles work much better when there is a good, strong team of other great people to work with and that has always been the case with ISBM. However, many of the ISBM leadership group have been involved with the organization for at least 15-20 years now, so I would say that a very exciting challenge for the future of ISBM is to identify who are going to be the ‘early’ and ‘mid-career’ researchers and academics who will be the ISBM leaders for the next 15-20 years!

Q6. Our society is an international one. Still, different countries and cultures might have different approaches to the same issue. As an Australian, do you think that there is a specific Australian (or Australasian) perspective on behavioral medicine? If yes, how is it defined?

A6. Yes, I think this probably is the case, because there are differences in the ways in which the underpinning disciplines of behavioral medicine, such as psychology, are practiced in different countries. Moreover, health systems and health services vary between countries, so this also leads to different approaches being used to address similar problems. As I spend more of my working life in countries like China, India and South Africa, I now also realise that most researchers, educators and health practitioners in developed countries are still not very good at “exchanging” evidence and experiences between countries, cultures and settings. For example, I have seen firsthand and experienced some of the best ‘real world’ socio-behavioral intervention programs in countries like South Africa that are being implemented and ‘scaled up’ for people at ‘high risk’ of HIV/AIDS and other big public health challenges. These programs are often really well adapted and culturally translated to the local situation and context. While there is a very rapidly developing global evidence base for behavioral medicine now, I believe there is still a strong tendency for those in developed countries to think that the ‘best’ and ‘most important’ evidence only comes from developed countries.

Q7. You are a professor of public health and firmly rooted in public health research. What contributions to public health do you expect from behavioral medicine? It would be great if you could respond to this question a) from a general perspective and b) from a personal perspective. In the context of the latter, I would also like to ask you to tell us a little bit about your role as an international health advisor for the Olympics in Bejing.

A7. I have already made some comments about the very important interplay that exists between the fields of behavioral medicine and public health and nowhere is this interplay more important than in the most rapidly developing and changing countries in the world in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In developing countries that do not have really well developed research and practice that is specifically related to behavioral medicine, public health provides a very good ‘lens’ through which it is possible to study very important health challenges – such as the chronic noncommunicable diseases and their risk factors – and to research innovative approaches to prevention and management that are relevantto those countries and their systems. When I became involved as a public health advisor for the Beijing Olympic Games soon after the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, I had the opportunity to work with many different health organizations and universities in China to address the health issues – for example, communicable diseases, environmental health, tobacco control – that had already been identified as potential threats for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Through a fortuitous set of circumstances that arose from an evolving collaboration between the Beijing Olympic Games Organizations (BOCOG), the Beijing Government, the National Health Ministry and the World Health Organization, the Chinese decided to use the Beijing Olympic Games to create a lasting public health legacy for Beijing and China from the Olympic Games. Indeed, this turned out to be the case, with rapid improvements taking place in air quality, tobacco control and many other health issues in Beijing over the last 5 years. As it turns out, an English and Chinese language Monograph will be published in the next couple of months which tells this story, how it happened and what the lessons will be for developing countries in the future, who aim to use mass events, such as Olympic Games, World Cup Football etc, to improve the health and wellbeing of their people.

Q8. Finally, what do you see in the future of behavioral medicine? If a young person wants to do something new and exciting, what would it be?

A8. Globally, countries comprising 80% of the world’s population, cannot afford the very expensive, technology-dependent and inefficient health systems that have been created by developed countries over the last 50 years. For these countries in the most rapidly developing regions of the world, if they are going to be able to improve the health and well-being of the majority of their people, behavioral medicine is absolutely critical and they do not really have a choice to ignore the contribution of behavioral, psychosocial, environmental and other factors on health outcomes and how to improve these. So, I would say that the future of behavioral medicine is definitely not in doubt! Consequently, for any young person who has trained in a discipline or field relevant to health, I would say that the career prospects in behavioral medicine and related fields look pretty good to me!

For my final words of advice, I would say three things: Be prepared to follow non-traditional paths to get to where you want to go because this will often end up being (even) more interesting than the traditional path you may have followed to get there. Make sure you choose a couple of really good mentors and make sure at least one of them is someone who has not developed their career in a very traditional way. It often takes some courage and risk-taking to do things differently from those around you! If at all possible, it’s really important to experience what life and work are like in other countries or cultures. This will also help you question many of your own assumptions and ways of doing things. Q8. I don’t want to be the person to decide who is important in behavioral medicine and who is not. So, I let you decide. Who should be the next person I am going to interview? There are three prerequisites: the person should be a woman, should not stem from the same country as you do, and should be a member of ISBM. A8. I would recommend that you interview Graciela Rodriguez from Mexico. She is a very interesting person and she has been one of the most important figures in the development of the field of behavioral medicine in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. She has also been very influential ‘behind the scenes’ of ISBM in all sorts of interesting ways! Thanks so much for your time, I really appreciate it!

Early Career Network

Hi everyone! It’s six months away from the next International Congress of Behavioral Medicine. We are currently busy organizing a few exciting social and conference activities for our young researchers. This issue will give you an overview of all these happenings so that you can start planning your travels.

ECN Workshop

We are grateful and honored to have finalized speakers for our conference workshop. Led by Ed Fisher from the United States, and cofacilitated Brian Oldenburg (Australia), Renee Boothroyd (US) and ourselves, the workshop entitled “Cross Cultural Research in Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Management” aims at improving skills to conducting health promotion and disease management research in international settings. The workshop will highlight issues pertaining to the selection of research objectives and outcome indicators, identification of reliable measures of outcomes, and development of interventions that combine strategies based in research evidence and provide for tailoring to local strengths and needs. The workshop will provide an interactive forum for addressing these issues.

Social night out

Feedback from early career members at the previous ICBM conference recommended that a more informal meeting take place where members could have the chance to discuss their work with others. Therefore an early career dinner is proposed for the Thursday night of the conference at a time and venue to be confirmed. Assistance from local organizers have identified a few places of interest but anyone from the Washington DC area or who knows it well is more than welcome to contribute suggestions.

ECN Accomodation

Another way for early career researchers to get to know each other is to meet through their accommodation whilst at the conference in Washington DC. To be in the best interests of many early career members a place was identified that was economically viable yet convenient to the conference venue. Details of this accommodation will be posted on the ICBM Washington website. If there are any questions about any of these activities or the ECN please don’t hesitate to make contact.

Carina Chan: carina.chan@med.monash.edu.my
Monash University (Sunway Campus), Malaysia

Marisa Finn: m.finn@auckland.ac.nz
The University of Auckland, New Zealand

ICBM 2010 Theme and Featured Presenters

The theme of the 11th ICBM is “Translational Behavioral Research: A Global Challenge”, which will
encourage global networking among all who contribute to the science and practice of behavioral
medicine. ICBM 2010 will include keynote addresses, master lectures and panels, symposia, roundtable
discussions, oral and poster presentations, meetings of special interest groups, workshops,
scientific and trade exhibitions and ample opportunity to network with colleagues. Our speakers
are prominent individuals from five continents who will address basic science, community applications
and policy issues of behavioral medicine.

Keynote Addresses

	Kelly D. Brownell, PhD Harnessing Science for Social and Policy Change: The Diet and Obesity Example Professor of Psychology, Epidemiology and Public Health Director, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity Yale University (United States)
	Jaakko Kaprio, MD, PhD Contribution of Genomics to Behavioral Medicine Professor of Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, National Institute for Health and Welfare (Finland)
	Olive Shisana, BA(SS), MA, ScD Behavioral Research in Informing HIV Prevention Practices Executive Director, South African National Research Program CEO of the South African Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) (South Africa)

Masters Lecturer

	Karen D. Davis, PhD Development of New Diagnostic Tools and Treatments for Brain Disorders Division of Brain, Imaging and Behaviour, Toronto Western Research Institute, University Health Network; Department of Surgery and Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto (Canada)
	Theresa M. Marteau, BSc, MSc, PhD Communicating Genetic Risks: Three Fallacies and a Challenge Professor, Health Psychology Section, King's College London (United Kingdom)
	Adolfo Martínez-Palomo MD, DSc Bioethics and Behavioral Research Coordinator of the Science Council for the Presidency Emeritus Professor of Experimental Pathology, Center for Research and Advanced Studies (Mexico)
	Robert Croyle, PhD Cognitive, Motivational and Social Processes Underlying Threat Appraisal and Coping Director, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute (United States)

Master Panels*

	Athula Sumathipala, MBBS, DFM, MD, MRCPsych, CCST, PhD Medically Unexplained Symptoms Honorary Director, Institute for Research and Development in Sri Lanka; Honorary Research Fellow, Section of Epidemiology Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, University of London (Sri Lanka)
	Lin Li, BA, MPh, PhD Predictors of Quitting Behaviors among Adult Smokers in China Compared to two Southeast Asian Countries and four Western Countries Research Scientist, VicHealth Centre for Tobacco Control, Cancer Council Victoria in Australia (Australia/China)
	Mira Aghi, MA, PhD Issues and Dynamics of Tobacco Research for Behavior and Policy Behavioral Scientist, Communication Expert, Advocacy Forum for Tobacco Control (AFTC); UNICEF; Global Youth Tobacco Survey; International Network of Women against Tobacco (INWAT); Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT); Cancer Patients AID Association (India)
	Fred Wabwire-Mangen, MBChB, MPH, PhD The Changing Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in Africa Associate Professor, Makerere University School of Public Health (MUSPH) (Uganda)

*A generous grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to our host society, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, will be used to support the participation of the master panelists from developing regions of the world. Their contribution will allow us to expand our views of the translation of behavior science to diverse settings.

Abstract Submission and Scoring Procedures

We are pleased to announce that we received more than 650 abstract submissions by the 15 January deadline! Fifty-two track chairs and co-chairs representing twenty-one countries have blindly scored all abstract submissions in the past several weeks. Each abstract was judged in several categories, including:

• Scientific Significance
• Strength of Methodology/Design
• Creativity/Originality/Innovation
• Clarity of writing
• Consideration of Meeting Theme

At the end of the scoring period, the results were tabulated and presented to the Scientific Program Committee. The Committee then made the final selections based on the chairs’ scores and recommendations, and all sessions were scheduled during a three day in-person meeting.

If you did not have an opportunity to submit an abstract by the January deadline, Rapid Communications Poster Submission will open on Monday, 15 March and close on Saturday, 1 May 2010.

Congress Registration

All abstract presenters, as well as attendees, must formally register for the Congress and pay the required registration fee. Please note that registration for the congress will be a requirement for abstracts being published in the special supplement issue of the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

Register online at https://www.sbm.org/ isbm/registration_form.asp by 15 June 2010 to take advantage of the Early Registration pricing, which offers a substantial discount to both member and non member attendees.

Lodging Information

The Grand Hyatt Washington D.C. is the headquarter hotel for ICBM 2010. Be sure to make your reservations by 6 July 2010, to take advantage of the low Congress rates. Please visit https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mod e=welcome_ei_new&eventID=1482447 to book your room.

Local Activities

From the lobby of the downtown Grand Hyatt, hop on the Metro, and you'll discover that all the attractions in Washington DC are within easy reach. Here are just a few samples of local activities:

Corcoran Gallery of Art
500 17th Street NW
Washington DC
202-639-1700
www.corcoran.org

National Gallery of Art
6th Street & Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington DC
202-7373-4215
www.nga.gov

Smithsonian

Museums of The Smithsonian are free and include:

• African Art Museum
• Air and Space Museum
• American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery
• National Museum of the American Indian
• Anacostia Community Museum
• Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
• Freer and Sackler Galleries (Asian art)
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• National Zoo
• Natural History Museum
• Portrait Gallery
• Postal Museum
• Smithsonian Institution Building, the Castle
• African American History and Culture Museum

Contact details

For information on the Congress and details of rapid communications abstract submission, please visit the Congress website at www.icbm2010.org.

Please direct any inquires about the ICBM program to Amy Genc Moritz, ICBM 2010 Secretariat, at amoritz@icbm2010.org

We look forward to welcoming everyone to the 11th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine in Washington, D.C. in August 2010!