Mentoring and Patient-Oriented Research in Mind-Body Exercise

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This Midcareer Investigator Award (K24) proposal will support Dr. Gloria Yeh in patient-oriented research and mentoring of trainees in the field of integrative medicine. Over the past 16 years, Dr. Yeh has developed a successful program of integrative medicine research with focus on lifestyle and meditative exercise interventions for cardiovascular and pulmonary conditions. Dr. Yeh's research program is based at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School, where she serves as Director of Mind-Body Research, Director of the National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH NCCIH) funded T32 fellowship (Harvard Medical School Research Fellowship in Integrative Medicine). Dr. Yeh's current research program includes two NCCIH R01 grants for which she serve as a principal investigator, and several other studies for which she serves as a key collaborator. This K24 proposal outlines career development initiatives for enhancing her research program and the quality/quantity of mentoring including participation in leadership and mentoring training, additional coursework (in advanced biostatistics, mixed methods, and research content-related trainings), and regular meetings with established senior faculty advisors. The overall Program Aims highlight three central themes which represent current research and areas of future expansion:1) To conduct rigorous research evaluating the clinical efficacy and mechanisms of mind-body therapies in cardiovascular and pulmonary disease and other chronic conditions; 2)To apply innovative methodology to better understand the contributions of individual, active components of multimodal behavioral, mind-body approaches; and 3) To investigate the complex array of patient factors that impact engagement and adherence to healthy lifestyle, particularly exercise, and how targeted mind-body therapies can augment/support this. With the protected time afforded by this K24, Dr. Yeh plans to advance her research in these areas and provide a diverse, creative, and supportive research environment to mentor and train junior investigators in integrative medicine.