CVD Epidemiology Training Program in Behavior, the Environment and Global Health

7. Project Summary This proposal will fund the NHLBI CVD Epi Training Program in Behavior, the Environment, and Global Health, critically important scientific disciplines that remain under-represented in NHLBI training. This Program will train 2 pre-doctoral and 6 post-doctoral trainees each year in the rich academic environment of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and affiliated institutions locally and worldwide, bringing together outstanding faculty mentors to provide integrated and interdisciplinary experiences and collaborative interactions, specialized curriculum with core and elective coursework, nondidactic practical career training, individual candidate training plans, and ongoing Program evaluation. Cutting-edge didactic training and mentoring will create a new generation of highly skilled and enthusiastic investigators to study the impact of behavioral and environmental risk factors on cardiometabolic health; to elucidate the cultural norms and biologic and sociologic pathways that modify these risk factors; and to understand and utilize the full set of epidemiologic, interventional, environmental, and policy tools to design, implement, and evaluate the most effective individualized, community, and policy interventions to reduce impact of harmful risk factors, facilitate expansion of protective behavioral and environmental factors, and attenuate or reverse the alarming global trends in cardiometabolic health. Training will include modern methodological and analytical techniques required to study the intersections of cardiometabolic health with Behavior, including observational epidemiology and interventions across the life cycle; the Environment, including airborne and environmental toxins, social risks, and physical (built) environment; and Global Health, including observational epidemiology and controlled interventions at individual, community and healthy system levels. This Training Program adds considerable strength and depth to the NHLBI’s commitment to understanding the behavioral and environmental determinants, preventive measures, and treatments of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in both developed and developing nations.