Expanding Training in Social and Behavioral Sciences Across the Georgia CTSA

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Project Summary/Abstract Behavioral and social sciences research is a multidisciplinary field that is fundamental to clinical and translational research that studies mechanisms of the physical, familial, social, community, and social environments that influence behaviors. Critical to the translation of evidence-based interventions into clinical practice is implementation science, which involves methods to adopt and integrate evidence-based practices, interventions, and policies into routine health care and public health settings. Our TL1 scholars need training in key theories and methods of behavioral and social sciences and implementation science methods to complement their current rigorous training. This TL1 administrative supplement supports the integration of core behavioral and social sciences methods training in the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance (CTSA) training programs in clinical and translational research. We aim to integrate core social and behavioral methods within existing curriculum, as well as expand learning opportunities by offering new annual training workshops and monthly lectures focused on evaluation and implementation science, targeted to TL1 Master's in Science in Clinical Research (MSCR) and Certificate Program in Translational Research (CPTR) trainees. Our specific aims are to: 1) integrate and evaluate the impact of social and behavioral methods within our existing MSCR and CPTR coursework, including new content on behavioral theory, evidence-based intervention development, study design/conduct of implementation research, qualitative methods, measurement theory, and translation and dissemination methods. 2) catalog resources and content for training in social and behavioral sciences for inclusion into TL1 trainee's Individualized Development Plans (IDPs) and host a new annual half-day workshop on social & behavioral research methods, and 3) expand an existing network of evaluation and implementation sciences at Emory to include TL1 trainees within all the Georgia CTSA institutes. We hypothesize that such new training will lead to rigorous new research in applied social and behavioral sciences.