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NIH Director meets with APA’s Anderson and Science Directorate

Raynard Kington, Kurt Salzinger, Elias Zerhouni, Norman Anderson, Merry Bullock, Pat Kobor

L-R: 
Raynard Kington, MD, PhD 
Deputy Director of NIH
Kurt Salzinger, PhD
APA Science Directorate Exec. Dir.;  
Elias Zerhouni, MD
NIH Director
Norman Anderson, PhD
APA CEO
Merry Bullock, PhD
APA Science Directorate Assoc. Exec. Dir.
Pat Kobor
APA Science Senior Policy Analyst
 

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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