Pre-Congress Workshops

The COVID-19 pandemic has offered us an opportunity to come into deeper contact with the existing inequities across communities and regions in our world. The impact on health, well-being, and economic and social resilience of true access to healthy food and a stable, supportive environment have been underscored across communities throughout the globe. As we strive to more fully integrate traditional healing systems, lifestyle medicine and other integrative modalities into existing healthcare structures, it is imperative to invigorate food sovereignty and environmental health efforts as critical components of health equity initiatives that address the health of the individual, community, nation and globe. We will explore existing efforts in various regions of the world, and work together to design additional innovative initiatives across the various realms of Integrative Health. A few key examples from around the world will serve as case studies around which the co-creative learning and design process will take place.

Developing a successful career in integrative medicine is a journey. Whether pursuing clinical practice, research, education, or policy, there are common aspects of career development that trainees can learn to navigate skillfully in order to promote success. One key aspect is self-care. Trainees encounter rigorous demands of their training program, clinical or research work, and personal life, which can contribute to elevated stress and burnout. Learning evidence-based strategies for self-care can improve coping and reduce stress for trainees. A second key aspect of career development is mentorship. Mentors are critical for helping trainees set and achieve career goals, identify training opportunities, learn necessary skills, and access resources. Being able to identify appropriate mentors and fostering healthy mentor-mentee relationships is critical for trainees' success. Lastly, the ability to set meaningful and achievable career goals is also critical. Gaining clarity about one's personal values and aligning them with professional mission and actionable goals can promote the sense of meaning and purpose needed for a successful and fulfilling career. This 3-hour workshop, led by a diverse panel of integrative medicine faculty, will incorporate didactic presentations, engaging experiential activities, and interactive discussions to help trainees develop successful integrative medicine careers by learning skills for self-care, identifying and working with mentors, and goal-setting. The intent is for trainees to leave with new knowledge, skills, and insights to promote a skillful professional development journey and fulfilling integrative medicine career.

Investigators often face many challenges to simply succeed in publishing research articles. And while publication of results is an excellent goal, the opportunity to make important scientific contributions does not stop with publication. Effectively sharing relevant research findings with non-researcher audiences-the public, patients, health care providers, other stakeholders (including funders)-is an important step in equipping these audiences with the information they need for good decision-making. This workshop will focus on how an investigator can effectively share results with nonscientific audiences to garner appropriate attention for the science, help the public understand the results, and encourage informed decision-making rooted in scientific evidence. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) Office of Communications and Public Liaison team and NCCIH Division of Extramural Research Outreach Program Manager will present communications best practices to aid investigators in harnessing resources, maintaining credibility, collaborating with institutional partners, and honing skills for effectively communicating results to lay audiences, particularly in the COVID-era. Workshop goals: • Develop effective messages and leverage the elements of "story" to promote understanding/recall • Work with communications teams at home institutions to promote and share research results • Effectively and appropriately use social media channels while avoiding common pitfalls • Conduct a good media interview using proven tips and techniques • Effectively engage with your NIH program director/funding institution • Consider how your research story may connect to bigger issues in public health or society such as addressing health disparities or issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Each part of the workshop with offer insights, instruction, and opportunities for participants to directly work on their messages and develop skills for serving as a better spokesperson, both for their own research and their home institutions.

A healthcare provider's educational journey is maintained as a lifelong learning process. This begins through initial schooling, and continues through the professional career trajectory. Updating one's knowledge and skills is essential to improved patient care, while establishing or maintaining the ability to practice. IM/IH trainees and providers seek to expand their knowledge and skills, consistent with their learning stage. To respond to these needs, the education must be clear in how it seeks to achieve the intended educational goals--reflecting research updates, supporting informed dialogues, and enhancing service delivery. There are two important dimensions in creating any educational material. The first dimension is the creation of learning or educational objectives or outcomes. Educational objectives, which communicate what the learner should be able to do as a result of the educational activity, can be arranged in a hierarchy that moves from less to more complex levels of knowledge. Originally termed as Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain, this was revised in 2001 to reflect more outcome-focused modern education objectives. The revised levels are: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate and Create. The second important dimension is the assessment of the outcome. Outcomes assessment is a systematic approach for documenting what learners get out of the educational session. An outcomes-based assessment attempts to answer "What did the learners actually learn?" Furthermore, it looks to address whether the outcome was measurable, identifiable, and a result of the learning. This workshop is intended for any healthcare professional who plans to create or deliver educational material to a learner audience. There are two aims. Through an interactive, small-group learning platform, participants will practice developing clear learning objectives/outcomes. Second, they will learn to formulate assessments that capture the intention and effectiveness of the learning outcome and the delivery of the learning material.

The workshop will provide an overview of funding options to promote early career development, including a discussion of private foundation support, NIH funding opportunities, and International funding support (Drs. Lanay Mudd and Claudia Witt). The workshop will describe NCCIH strategic priorities for early career development opportunities (Dr. Emmeline Edwards), as well as an overview of funding opportunities (K-awards and New Innovator Award; Dr. Lanay Mudd) and the NIH review process with key characteristics of strong K-award applications (Dr. Patrick Still). Grantees at different stages of their careers will lead a panel discussion of their experiences with private foundation, NCCIH and International funding sources, along with tips for successful career transitions (Drs. Tina Luberto, Jefferey Proulx, Richard Harris, Amanda Shallcross, and Claudia Witt). Breakout sessions specific to research and clinical care, clinical research, and basic and mechanistic research will be co-led by funded investigators and NCCIH staff to discuss the following topic areas: juggling demands and finding balance, finding mentors for different career stages, and planning grant submissions (Drs. Carol Greco, Wendy Weber, Lanay Mudd and Wen Chen along with panel speakers). Attendees have the option to sign up for NCCIH consultations during the conference.