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Elias Zerhouni, M.D. has been director of the National Institutes of
Health for about six months, but already he’s met twice with the APA
leadership. The first meeting was with a coalition of behavioral and
social science organizations at the end of October, which we reported to
you in the November SPIN.
In January, he met for a wide-ranging discussion with APA’s new CEO,
Norman Anderson, Ph.D., and senior staff from the Science Directorate
and Public Policy Office.
Anderson embraced the opportunity to explain APA’s programs and
priorities to the director of NIH. He particularly emphasized his goal
to make psychology more useful in the ‘real world.’ Zerhouni asked
questions about the training, income and debt burden of scientific and
practicing psychologists, remarking that psychologists seem to
experience the same pressures as other NIH constituent scientists in
deciding whether to specialize in research or practice.
Dr. Zerhouni encouraged APA to step into the forefront of efforts to
improve U.S. health. He cited the growing rates of obesity in the U.S.
in all age ranges, and mentioned how a concerted effort by psychologists
to help people change behavior could be helpful. He also spoke about the
problem of medical errors, and mentioned that he feels behavioral
research is the key to minimizing errors by health care providers. He
said he is conscious of moving quickly in his job to areas where NIH
focus can bring results.
"It’s clear Dr. Zerhouni is a strong leader and consummate
manager," said Norman Anderson. "He is focused on moving NIH
forward in areas that depend on behavioral research—elimination of
minority health disparities, for example, and healthy behavior
change."
"Even given his focus on results, it was clear that he is very
supportive of basic research," said Merry Bullock, Ph.D., Associate
Executive Director for Science. "He said we can’t have one
without the other."
"I was especially pleased that Dr. Zerhouni has such a good
working relationship with the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social
Sciences Research," said Kurt Salzinger, APA’s Executive Director
for Science. "He clearly relies on the Office for information and
support. It’s the role we hoped and expected the Office would play
when it was created."
Raynard Kington, M.D. Ph.D. who directs the NIH Office of Behavioral
and Social Sciences Research and was recently appointed Deputy NIH
Director, attended, as well as Ruth Kirschstein, who recently moved from
the position of Deputy NIH Director to Senior Adviser to the NIH
Director, attended the meeting for NIH. Pat Kobor, APA’s Sr. Science
Policy Analyst, represented the Public Policy Office.
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