The History of CBDSM

Beginnings

In 2000, Dr. Peter Ubel, a professor and clinician in General Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, brought together a group of researchers interested in studying the psychological and economic determinants of health care decision making. Under Dr. Ubel's leadership, the Program for Improving Health Care Decisions (PIHCD) took shape and grew steadily, with external funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the State of Michigan.

As PIHCD developed, it became apparent that the scientific investigations were going well beyond decision making, with groundbreaking research in, for example, doctor-patient communication, psychological adaptation to disability, and management of chronic diseases. PIHCD researchers were creating software tools to conduct internet surveys and scales for assessing numerical ability and comprehension of complex medical information.

These developments expanded the focus of the program to include behavioral sciences as well as decision sciences. Concurrently, the disciplinary breadth of the program expanded, with collaborations in a number of clinical areas, including gastroenterology, urology, anesthesiology, oncology, rheumatology, nephrology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, radiation oncology, and pediatrics. The interdisciplinary team included psychologists, economists, bioethicists, and public health experts. PIHCD enabled clinicians and social scientists to understand each others' unique perspectives and insights, improving the quality and applicability of the resulting research.

The Center is Born

In 2005, PIHCD became the Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine (CBDSM) at the University of Michigan Medical School, with Dr. Ubel as Director and with the VA Ann Arbor Health System as a co-sponsor. The CBDSM name represented the bridging of theory and practice across social science disciplines and medical specialties. Having "center" status at the Medical School also allowed efficiencies of scale and provided a home for researchers with multiple methodological and theoretical perspectives on health decision making and behavior.

Today

Currently, CBDSM is housed in the North Ingalls Building, on the medical campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Investigators, project managers, research associates, and research assistants are supported by a core administrative and financial staff of three. CBDSM gives considerable attention to training the next generation of interdisciplinary researchers, offering support to junior investigators who can collaborate with seasoned researchers in an umbrella organization. The post-doctoral fellowship program, under the leadership of Dr. Angela Fagerlin, is one component of this effort.

The Department of Veterans Affairs continues as a key partner for CBDSM. Grant funding for CBDSM remains robust, particularly as more and more researchers are drawn to collaborative undertakings as faculty affiliates of the Center. Strategic planning is underway to map the future of CBDSM, which has become one of the pre-eminent organizations of its kind in the world.