RAND Mini-Medical School for Social Scientists

描述（由申请人提供）：自1998年以来，兰德公司在加州圣莫尼卡为社会科学家举办了一所小型医学院（MiniMed）。这个项目的动机是认识到，如果有良好的生物医学基础，对衰老的行为和社会研究将更有见地，最终更有用。MiniMed由为期两天的系列讲座组成，由国内和国际专家就衰老研究人员感兴趣的各种生物医学主题进行讲座。该活动与关于老龄化的人口、经济和流行病学的第二次研讨会同时举行。这两个研讨会的结合不仅减少了组织费用，而且更重要的是，可以吸引那些本来可能不会参加任何一个项目的学者。最小的参与者包括大学的初级和高级教师，老年学博士后和博士前学员，以及非营利基金会和机构的研究人员。过去的讲座涵盖了衰老过程、遗传学、生物学等多种主题，以及与癌症、痴呆、心血管疾病、糖尿病等影响老年人的特定疾病相关的最新研究。每堂课都强调可以为老年社会科学研究提供信息的生物医学知识。这笔会议拨款将支持这一备受好评的项目继续开展五年。每年，我们都会邀请六名演讲者和65名参与者在圣莫尼卡参加为期两天的生物医学主题讲座。另外30名与会者将由他们自己出资邀请。未来的项目将扩展到创新的新领域，包括个性化医疗，人口老龄化的肥胖和干细胞研究，同时仍然保持MiniMed作为一个论坛，帮助社会科学家学习，理解和解释与他们的研究相关的医学知识。兰德“社会科学家迷你医学院”将为社会科学家提供接触基础和尖端生物医学研究的机会。该计划将促进对卫生保健感兴趣的年轻研究人员的培训，以及寻求扩大跨学科研究视野的更资深的研究人员。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Since 1998, RAND has hosted a Mini-Medical School for Social Scientists (MiniMed) in Santa Monica, California. This program is motivated by the recognition that behavioral and social research on aging is better informed and ultimately more useful if it has a sound biomedical basis. MiniMed consists of a two-day series of lectures by national and international experts on diverse biomedical topics of interest to researchers in aging. The event is held in conjunction with a second workshop on the demography, economics, and epidemiology of aging. The combination of these two workshops not only reduces organizational expenses, but, more importantly, serves to attract scholars who might otherwise not attend either program. MiniMed participants include junior and senior faculty at universities, post-doctoral and pre-doctoral trainees in aging, and researchers from non-profit foundations and institutions. Past lectures have covered such diverse topics as the aging process, genetics, and biology, as well as the latest research related to specific conditions that affect the elderly such as cancer, dementia, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Each lecture emphasizes biomedical knowledge that could inform social science research on the elderly. This conference grant would support the continuation of this well-regarded program for five years. Each year, we would invite six speakers and 65 participants for two days of lecturers on biomedical topics in Santa Monica. Another 30 participants would be invited with their own funding. Future programs will extend our reach into innovative new areas including personalized medicine, obesity in an aging population, and stem cell research while still maintaining MiniMed as a forum to help social scientists learn, understand, and interpret medical knowledge relevant to their research. The RAND "Mini Medical School for Social Scientists" will provide social scientists with exposure to both fundamental and cutting-edge biomedical research. The program will facilitate the training of young researchers with interests in health care, as well as more senior researchers seeking to broaden their interdisciplinary research perspective.