Mentoring and research in mind-body and integrative therapies

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This is a proposed K24 Mid-Career Investigator Award in Patient-Orient Research (POR) for Dr. Peter Wayne, Director of Research at Osher Center for Integrative Medicine (jointly based at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH)), and Assistant Professor in Medicine at HMS (promotion to Associate Professor pending). Over the past 15 years, Dr. Wayne has built a successful, continuously funded, program of research focused on evaluating the clinical impact of multiple integrative medicine (IM) therapies, including Tai Chi, acupuncture, and manual therapies, for the prevention and rehabilitation of a broad range of chronic health conditions. Drawing on multiple experimental and analytic skills from an earlier research career in evolutionary biology, and significant clinical experience as a practitioner and teacher of integrative therapies, he has developed the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct high quality POR and to guide others in this process. The coordinated set of initiatives proposed in this K24 award will provide Dr. Wayne with needed protected time to significantly: 1) expand the quantity and quality of his mentoring of junior investigators committed to IM research; and 2) increase his research skills and expand his portfolio of research as a foundation for leading future innovative and high impact studies informing the use of IM therapies and models. Initiatives to enhance his mentoring include: Participation in the BWH faculty leadership training program; development of a more structured and comprehensive mentoring plan that is tailored to the individual level of the trainees; regular meetings with an assembled team of committed senior faculty advisors; and reduction in time devoted to administrative activities which will be reallocated to mentoring. The success of these initiatives will be augmented by Dr. Wayne's current leadership role at the Osher Center; access to a rich pool of mentee candidates via two long-standing NIH-funded T32 Fellowships for which he serves as faculty, as well as multiple other local, national, and international training and research programs with which the Osher Center collaborates; and the rich educational resources afforded across HMS hospitals and institutions, including the Harvard Catalyst, an NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Award site. Dr. Wayne's current research program is highly collaborative, and includes two NIH R01s for which he serves as a multiple PI, two additional foundation-funded studies that he leads as PI, and 6 other studies for which he serves as a key collaborator. These studies, along with future studies to be developed, are summarized in a Research Strategy centered around three global aims: 1) to evaluate integrative medical approaches to chronic low back pain; 2) to conduct translational research evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Tai Chi for rehabilitation and prevention of chronic disease related functional decline; 3) to evaluate the impact of Tai Chi on cognitive and motor processes in Parkinson's disease. Collectively, current and future planned studies would provide a diverse, creative, well-funded, and supportive research environment to train junior IM investigators.