Interdisciplinary research is a cooperative effort by a team of investigators, each an expert in the use of different methods and concepts, who have joined in an organized program to attack a challenging problem. Each investigator is responsible for the research in their area of discipline that applies to the problem, but together the investigators are responsible for the final product. The need for interdisciplinary training activities has been detailed over the last 25 years in both public and private reports. The history of science and technology has even shown the important advances that arose from interdisciplinary research, including plate tectonics which brought together geologists, oceanographers, paleomagnetists, seismologists, and geophysicists to advance the ability to forecast earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In recognition of this, the need to train scientists who can address the highly complex problems that challenge us today and fully use new knowledge and technology, and the fact that cooperative efforts have proved difficult, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), the National Institute on Nursing Research (NINR), and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) requested that an Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee be created to complete several tasks including: examining the needs and strategies for interdisciplinary training in the brain, behavioral, social, and clinical sciences, defining necessary components of true interdisciplinary training in these areas, and reviewing current educational and training programs to identify elements of model programs that best facilitate interdisciplinary training. Bridging Disciplines in the Brain, Behavioral, and Clinical Sciences provides the conclusions and recommendations of this committee. Due to evaluations of the success of interdisciplinary training programs are scarce, the committee could not specify the "necessary components" or identify the elements that "best facilitate" interdisciplinary training. However, after reviewing existing programs and consulting with experts, the committee identified approaches likely to be successful in providing direction for interdisciplinary endeavors at various career stages. This report also includes interviews, training programs, and workshop agendas used.

Interdisciplinary research is a method that has become efficient in accelerating scientific discovery. The integration of such processes in problem solving and knowledge generation is a vital part of learning and instruction. Promoting Interdisciplinarity in Knowledge Generation and Problem Solving is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on interdisciplinary projects from around the world, highlighting the broad range of circumstances in which this approach can be effectively used to solve problems and generate new knowledge. Featuring coverage on a number of topics and perspectives such as industrial design, ethnographic methods, and methodological pluralism, this publication is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on the promotion of interdisciplinarity for knowledge production.

A Strategy for Assessing Science offers strategic advice on the perennial issue of assessing rates of progress in different scientific fields. It considers available knowledge about how science makes progress and examines a range of decision-making strategies for addressing key science policy concerns. These include avoiding undue conservatism that may arise from the influence of established disciplines; achieving rational, high-quality, accountable, and transparent decision processes; and establishing an appropriate balance of influence between scientific communities and agency science managers. A Strategy for Assessing Science identifies principles for setting priorities and specific recommendations for the context of behavioral and social research on aging.

Behavioral Intervention Research in Hospice and Palliative Care: Building an Evidence Base sets forth research considerations and guidelines to build evidence-based interventions to improve end-of-life care. It is an in-depth introduction to implementation research and showcases how a clinical need is identified to inform an intervention. The book extensively examines the various phases of intervention research, including design, implementation, evaluation, dissemination and translation. The book focuses on methodological, ethical and practical issues. The science behind the quality of hospice and palliative care lags behind that of traditional medical practice, despite the continuous growth of palliative care interdisciplinary teams. Researching, developing and testing strategies is essential to advancing the effectiveness and value of this care. - Informs readers how to conduct intervention research toward identifying best care - Advises readers on design, implementation and evaluation of research - Provides step-by-step templates to develop an intervention study - Includes mock protocols from successful intervention trials - Synthesizes lessons learned by established intervention researchers in hospice and palliative care

Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research examines current interdisciplinary research efforts and recommends ways to stimulate and support such research. Advances in science and engineering increasingly require the collaboration of scholars from various fields. This shift is driven by the need to address complex problems that cut across traditional disciplines, and the capacity of new technologies to both transform existing disciplines and generate new ones. At the same time, however, interdisciplinary research can be impeded by policies on hiring, promotion, tenure, proposal review, and resource allocation that favor traditional disciplines. This report identifies steps that researchers, teachers, students, institutions, funding organizations, and disciplinary societies can take to more effectively conduct, facilitate, and evaluate interdisciplinary research programs and projects. Throughout the report key concepts are illustrated with case studies and results of the committee's surveys of individual researchers and university provosts.

Mental Health Informatics offers a comprehensive examination of contemporary issues in mental health that focuses on the innovative use of computers and other information technology in support of patient care, education, services delivery, and research in the field of mental health services. This text deals with resources, devices, and formalized methods for optimizing the storage, retrieval, and management of information for problem solving and decision-making in mental health. Mental health informatics is an interdisciplinary field based upon computer and information sciences, the cognitive and decision sciences, public health and mental health (including epidemiology), and telecommunications. Researchers in informatics have discovered new methods and techniques to enhance health and mental health care, scientific and applied research, and education through information technology. The fourteen chapters are divided into four main parts, including: 1) an introduction to informatics, public health, and mental health; 2) an overview of the ethical, legal, services delivery, and organizational issues in data/records standards and technology adoption; 3) discusses research in today's online environment, addressing issues including research competencies, standards for literature reviews, constructing search strategies, and synthesizing findings; and 4) provides a discussion of the globalization of information and future issues in policy and practice in mental health informatics.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic and often disabling disease of the nervous system, affecting about 1 million people worldwide. Even though it has been known for over a hundred years, no cause or cure has yet been discovered-but now there is hope. New therapies have been shown to slow the disease progress in some patients, and the pace of discoveries about the cellular machinery of the brain and spinal cord has accelerated. This book presents a comprehensive overview of multiple sclerosis today, as researchers seek to understand its processes, develop therapies that will slow or halt the disease and perhaps repair damage, offer relief for specific symptoms, and improve the abilities of MS patients to function in their daily lives. The panel reviews existing knowledge and identifies key research questions, focusing on: Research strategies that have the greatest potential to understand the biological mechanisms of recovery and to translate findings into specific strategies for therapy. How people adapt to MS and the research needed to improve the lives of people with MS. Management of disease symptoms (cognitive impairment, depression, spasticity, vision problems, and others). The committee also discusses ways to build and financially support the MS research enterprise, including a look at challenges inherent in designing clinical trials. This book will be important to MS researchers, research funders, health care advocates for MS research and treatment, and interested patients and their families.

The report says that important organizational changes are needed at the National Institutes of Health to ensure the agency meets future challenges effectively. In particular, the report advises NIH to devote additional resources to innovative interdisciplinary research that reflects its strategic objectives and cuts across all agency's institutes and centers. The report recommends that Congress should establish a formal process for determining how specific proposals for changes in the number of NIH agencies and centers should be addressed.

Depressive disorders are among the most common types of psychopathology in the United States. Adolescent-onset depressive disorders represent particularly insidious conditions because of their strong association with chronic and recurrent emotional problems in adulthood. This handbook offers authoritative reviews of research on the nature, ca