Our team found that, for wt loss maintenance, extended-care delivered on an individually-adapted schedule did not out perform our gold standard 1x/month program. Although null results are never fun, the clinician in me was ecstatic that BOTH groups did so well! Link: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

RCT: Providing extended care via telephone—whether on an adaptive or static monthly schedule—resulted in similar long-term weight-loss maintenance among adults with obesity. ja.ma/3KDhMZK

Yep, just found out our NIDDK R01 scored at 7th percentile (which had been sent to GMS/got a JIT request which we dropped everything to response to) didnt make it past the new cut

Thank you @jackmbirch.bsky.social for summarising your experiences at our recent #DigitalHealthDivide2025 workshop at @univie.ac.at!

At #ICBM2025 : Dr. Roberto Benzo from OSU finds a high ownership of fitness trackers in cancer survivors. Number one barrier to ownership: cost!

At #ICBM2025 ? Stop by my talk tomorrow in the 11:45-1:15 session (OP06, room HS03) — I’m excited to present the primary outcomes of the Project STAR trial!

So how are bigger research teams dealing with journals now saying we have to pay APCs (of several thousand dollars each) for ALL papers coming out of NIH-supported projects? Who has this kind of $$?!

At #ISBNPA2025 in a wonderful session on ultra-processed foods that has turned into a deep discussion on gender inequities and time scarcity; when focusing on the food system alone we may be ignoring much bigger probs. How do we make it so we have the time & resources to cook & eat healthy foods?

At #ISBNPA2025? Stop by this mHealth/eHealth paper session later today to hear me talk about our pilot of a novel, microrandomized factorial trial design aimed at optimizing feedback for self-monitoring (Waitakere 1)

I was honored to be asked to write a commentary for Dr. Tricia Leahey's recent trial focused on using mentor/peer support to promote long-term weight loss maintenance, published in JAMA Internal Medicine! Gift link to the article below: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

“You can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.” ― Jodi Picoult #WritingSky #AcademicSky

For a big job update: I've enjoyed my time at UF, but as of May 12 I'll be starting as a Senior Scientist at the Advocate Aurora Research Institute, with a faculty appointment at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. I'm excited for new collaborations & having much more time to focus on research!

It’s almost time for #SBM2025 ! One of our UFHPL grad students made this handy guide to our team’s presentations! (And a plug to vote for me for member delegate if you still haven’t voted in the board election!)

I've been told that being a successful researcher will require pivoting, adapting, & a willingness to "scrub" grants of "contentious" words. But I worry that as researchers self-censor, we will also inadvertently promote this administration’s misguided agenda. This isn't how science works.

Studies show that funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) contributed to 354 of 356 drugs (99.4%) approved by the FDA from 2010 to 2019. Recklessly slashing NIH funding will mean that patients will be waiting much longer for life-saving treatments.

Some good-ish news from NIH “Federal Register notices for study sections run by CSR (but not those by ICs) will start being permitted again” As far as I know, the timing for this is not clear, but I will be checking the Federal Register.

Congratulations to our outgoing PhD Clinical Psychology Trainees as they move on to finish their final clinical training year! Once again our department gets to celebrate a 100% match rate!

In clinical research, you will often receive feedback on study design, stats, and/or data analysis from an editor or reviewer that is simply wrong. Here is a list of common "statistical myths" and references you can use to push back. discourse.datamethods.org/t/reference-...

UF has 520 NIH grants totaling $212,488,586. Do the math. And check your school here: report.nih.gov/award/index....

The NIH capping the indirect cost rate (IDC) for grants at 15% can best be described as a direct assault on Universities. It’s such a bureaucratic, innocuous sounding thing that actually means that research universities will be kneecapped. Thousands of employees across the US will lose their jobs.

8. It is difficult to overstate what a catastrophe this will be for the US research and education systems, particular in biomedical fields. It is deliberate and wanton devastation entirely out of scale with any concern about DEI activities on campuses. The goal is destroy US universities.

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

“We at the American Journal of Public Health have no interest in following the president's prohibitions on language," said Georges Benjamin, MD, publisher of AJPH 👏👏👏 www.medpagetoday.com/special-repo...

A Comment article in Nature Medicine argues that clinical research should recruit participants from LGBTQIA+ populations, which requires specific actions and policies to create affirming and welcoming environments. https://go.nature.com/3WILuQi 🧪

I hope you will all join me in expressing your thanks to the NIH and NSF staff who are working in an impossibly difficult and chaotic environment to keep science going in our country.

Data point: I heard from the SRO on a grant application that should have been reviewed last week. He indicated that they were allowed to start rescheduling study section meetings as of this afternoon.

The entire archive of CDC datasets can be found here. HUGE shoutout to data archivists- this work is important 👏🙌🏻 archive.org/details/2025...

I’ve now posted the National YRBS data, 2015-2023, here. I’ll add the state and district data soon. www.datalumos.org/datalumos/pr...

The OSF is available for preservation of datasets that need saving. osf.io Contact [email protected] if you need assistance

This is what the government did with 120K+ Japanese Americans in 1942. I know. I was there in those camps.

📢 Calling all researchers! Late-breaking abstract submissions are OPEN! #ISBNPA2025 Don’t miss your chance to share your groundbreaking research in #behavioralnutrition #physicalactivity #sedentarybehavior or #sleep. 👉 Ensure your abstract aligns with one of our SIGs. 📅 Submit now: loom.ly/14Qv-f8

Amid chaos after federal grants were frozen, know that my research colleagues: - Develop new cancer treatments for kids - Are curing sickle cell disease - Build new tech to help premature babies survive - Prevent teens from dying of drug overdose - And more Are we really halting this? #NIH #MedSky

Just implemented a new email sign off.

Mood:

I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service. “Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.

Our country is hailed worldwide for our technical and scientific ingenuity But it is federal grants that serve as the engine of innovation. Pausing scientific grantmaking — by NSF, NIH, and more — is NOT a recipe for American greatness. Consider reminding your senators & reps of this fact.

This week is an opportunity to explain things about how NIH works to your friends, family, etc that aren’t in the biz. This is the last available data from NIH, Fiscal Year 2023. The percentile rank is the relative merit score voted by various study section. Lower is better in the NIH parlance.

An excellent resource on the economic impact of NIH funding in the U.S. with an interactive link for state specific information here: www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...

No study section...no grant reviews No grant reviews...no grants awarded No grants awarded...no research No research...no functional NIH

JAMA Guide to Statistics and Methods: Factorial clinical trial designs allow for the simultaneous evaluation of multiple treatments and their interactions. ja.ma/4gTWOB8 #MedSky

I don’t love the cold this time of year but I love that it brings in the manatees! Bonus anhinga, turtles, and monkeys. The springs are my absolute favorite part of FL 🚣

A reminder to all potential #NIH #NRSA fellowship applicants (e.g., F31/F32s): some big changes are being made to the application forms on January 25! Read more here: grants.nih.gov/policy-and-c...

"A study of federally funded research projects in the United States estimated that principal investigators spend on average about 45% of their time on administrative activities related to applying for and managing projects rather than conducting active research" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Yet here I am on Dec 31st, trying to wrap up my CE 🫣

it's called "Public Health"

na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A... check us out #Blacksky #Blackmedsky @acog-org.bsky.social

A word of caution: it might feel like that grant/paper/review cannot possibly wait over the Christmas period, but you can't get time with friends and family back. You likely won't be like "really wish I'd submitted that" in 5 years time but you might regret not spending time with those you love.