How To Increase the Impact Of
Your Work…And Why It Matters
Brought to you by the
Civic and Public Engagement Committee (CPEC)
Formerly known as the Public Policy Leadership Group
Behavioral Science Under Attack
Forbes-- 10/7/13
“All research carried out within or supported by NIH is
not equal, and the projects carried out by its NCCAM
— are clearly a weak link…. many of its projects are
trivial and almost all of the interventions tested have
proven to be worthless.”
Wall Street Journal 7-25-13–
“Most of these ill-advised projects are funded by NSF’s
Social, Behavioral and Economics Directorate. The social
sciences grants were evaluated with more rigor when they
were organizationally within the NSF's Biology Directorate.
When these grants were split off, scientific rigor gave way to
cronyism and narcissistic self-regard.”
New York Times –7-19-13
“the social sciences have stagnated. They offer essentially
the same set of academic departments and disciplines that
they have for nearly 100 years: sociology, economics,
anthropology, psychology and political science. This is not
only boring but also counterproductive, constraining
engagement with the scientific cutting edge and stifling the
creation of new and useful knowledge.”
USA Today – September 30, 2013
Rethinking science funding: House Majority Leader
Eric Cantor, (R-VA) and Chairman of the House
Committee on Science, Space and Technology and
Representative Lamar Smith, (R-TX) wrote “we have
recently seen far too many questionable grants,
especially in the social, behavioral and economic
sciences.”
Behavioral scientists
What can I do to increase the
impact of my work (and the field of
behavioral medicine)?
Strategies to influence thought
High impact
Low impact
Interact with policy makers
Publish research in scientific
journals
Interact with press
Join community organizations
Attend professional
conferences
Write editorials
Social media
See patients
Join the CPEC!
Teaching
CPEC’s Mission
To increase the policy and public impact of behavioral
medicine.
 Letter sign-on campaigns
 Editorials
 Capitol Hill visits
 Tracking legislation
 Social media
 Educating membership
Stories
Editorials
Katula JA, Vitolis MZ, Morgan TM, et al. The Healthy Living Partnerships
to Prevent Diabetes Study: 2-year outcomes of a randomized controlled
trial. Am J Prev Med 2013;44:S324–S332.
Pagoto S., Lemon SC., Whiteley J. on behalf of the SBM Public Policy
Leadership Group. Behavioral weight loss counseling: Reimbursement policy
limits implementation of the evidence. NEJM. 2013; N69(5), 485-486.
Daumit GL, Dickerson FB, Wang NY, et al. A behavioral weight-loss
intervention in persons with serious mental illness. N Engl J Med
2013;368:1594-602.
Pagoto S, Lemon SC., Pbert L., Van Dorsten B., Whiteley J. on behalf of the
SBM Public Policy Leadership Group. Evidence for community-based
approaches to weight loss: a case for revising the Centers for Medicaid and
Medicare Services reimbursement structures. American Journal of Preventive
Medicine. 2013 Aug;45(2):e17-8. PubMed PMID: 23867037.
Sherry.pagoto@umassmed.edu