Research
Much of the clinical research in behavioral medicine is problematic because many of the clinicians performing behavioral medicine interventions have had little training in accepted methods of clinical research and have limited access to the current medical literature. The generally poor quality of the small pilot studies which constitute the bulk of work in behavioral medicine has resulted in reluctance of established agencies to support larger demonstration projects. This, in turn, prevents the fledgling researchers from gaining experience in using accepted techniques.
The Foundation hopes to promulgate performance of high quality studies in behavioral medicine in several ways:
- The Foundation provides consultation on experimental design and analysis of clinical data to clinicians who wish to perform studies utilizing behavioral medicine techniques.
- The Foundation offers a course in clinical research design specifically developed to meet the needs of clinicians whose practices center on behavioral medicine.
- The Foundation offers unpaid research fellowships to clinicians who need an affiliation to serve as the central focus of their efforts. The Foundation gives fellowship status to students in our program who are actively pursing research in psychophysiology. The Foundation provides administrative support for grants, etc., project review by our Human Use Committee, and advice on research design and analysis.