Happy New Year!
SBSM is seeking proposals for a new “Disease A Year” (DAY) 4-hour virtual meeting/webinar to be held in September or October 2023 (date to be finalized with the proposal organizers). This email will provide information and instructions for submitting a proposal. The due date for the proposal is March 3, 2023. This due date will permit announcement of the selected proposal at the Annual Meeting in Puerto Rico March 8-11, 2023 and allow lead time of at least 6 months to prepare for the virtual meeting.
The DAY program aims to identify new synergies between our expanding understanding and treatment of medical disorders on the one hand and psychosocial factors relevant to the clinical expression and treatment of these disorders on the other. A second aim is to identify research gaps and actions that must be addressed to advance our scientific and clinical contributions. The DAY program pursues these aims via the collaboration between leading scientists representing the medical and psychosocial perspectives during the webinar and then publishing a jointly-authored white paper.
The proximal objectives of the DAY program are as follows:
- Obtain the latest medical update on the selected disease from our medical counterparts
- In parallel, obtain cutting-edge information about psychosocial risk factors and biobehavioral interventions from SBSM members and biopsychosocial scientists from other organizations
- Identify synergies between the biomedical and biopsychosocial perspectives that can advance research or clinical interventions—the more specific to the disorder and the relevant biomedical mechanisms, the better.
- Submit a summary manuscript to Psychosomatic Medicine in the spring of 2024.
- If possible, work with an Editor of a relevant medical journal to reprint the white paper to be published in Psychosomatic Medicine.
The 4-hour virtual meeting should give approximately equal time to four areas: 1) medical update, 2) biopsychosocial perspectives, 3) synergies and recommendations for future research and clinical interventions, and 4) discussion with the audience.
Our goal is to feature a specific medical disorder or category of disorders from any of the following ten categories:
- Cardiology
- Pulmonology
- Gastroenterology
- Nephrology (including hypertension) and Hepatology
- Endocrinology and Obstetrics-Gynecology
- Immunology and Allergy/Hematology and Oncology
- Dermatology and Dentistry
- Neurology and Psychiatry
- Infectious disease
- Surgery and its specialties (e.g. general, orthopedics, urology, ophthalmology, ENT)
The requirements for the proposal are as follows:
- The principal organizer is an SBSM member
- A majority of presenters at the virtual meeting are SBSM members at the time of the meeting
- The team agrees to submit a white paper or review article in the spring of 2024 to Psychosomatic Medicine, and will pursue reprinting the paper in another medical journal.
- The team agrees to make one or more presentations (poster, oral presentation, roundtable discussion or symposium) at the Annual Meeting in March 2024, 6 months after the virtual meeting.
A budget of up to $10,000 is available to cover costs of honoraria, marketing and other expenses approved by the Steering Committee. This form should be used to submit your proposal. Here is a description of the point system that will be used to evaluate proposals.
We appreciate that the timeline for this application is short. Incomplete applications are acceptable; please do the best you can. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the chair of the Steering Committee, Richard D. Lane (lane@arizona.edu). If you are considering submitting a proposal, please send a brief, non-binding email to info@psychosomatic.org with your name and intended disease focus to let us know that you may apply.
Best wishes,
SBSM Disease A Year Steering Committee
Allison Gaffey, Loretta Hsueh, Richard Lane, Michael Mangold, Matthew Muldoon, John Ruiz