Daniel Bruns, PsyD, was awarded a Presidential Citation for being the consummate scientist-practitioner and employing empirical research to influence applied practice while allowing his practice experiences to shape future research.
Bruns maintains a full-time practice, has published assessment tools to measure health improvement (BHI™2 and BBHI™2 tests) and co-authored numerous articles and book chapters on biopsychosocial assessment. Using science, he advanced not only his own practice, but those of his colleagues across the country. Bruns served on panels that have drafted treatment guidelines and contributed to a 1992 workman's compensation reform bill in Colorado promoting a biopsychosocial rehabilitation model. Published in Rehabilitation Psychology 20 years later, he evaluated the legislation's impact documenting considerable cost savings. He is one of few who have demonstrated “bending the cost curve,” the holy grail of health economists. At APA, Bruns served as chairperson for the Health Psychology Clinical Health Services Council from 2007-14. Bruns organizes and manages healthpsych.comopens in new window, a safe haven for those seeking reliable information in an internet-age full of misinformation. In 1949, APA developed The Boulder Model, a new model for training psychologists that many felt could not be realized. No one person could practice, employ scientific methods to improve their practice for patients, and share the information with colleagues and policy makers to impact populations, but Bruns has done all of that and more. He is a leader during difficult times, clearly outlining the major issues, and ways we, as a profession, can constructively bring about change; engaging in discourse on the health psychology lists that positively impact hundreds of his colleagues. Bruns' achievements have not only helped the patients he sees in Colorado but serve as a resource for all health psychologists, improving the field of psychology nationally.