Curriculum

The MIWI Training Program is highly interactive.

Scholars in the Michigan Integrative Well-Being and Inequality Training Program will receive support that is both targeted in their area of research, and also builds their expertise in studying the intersection of physical and mental health, with a focus on health disparities. 

Scholars in this program will not just be receivers of information; they will be engaged in learning through:

seminarsDidactic and Interactive Seminars

The summer institute seminars will address concepts and methods central to conducting integrative research on the intersection of mental and physical health. All seminars will be interactive, using a case-study approach based on the research experiences of the summer institute faculty to illustrate how these concepts affect research. Core seminar topics will address issues that are central to the training needs of scholars from all backgrounds in this field. Additionally, we will offer selective seminars, which will provide flexibility in matching the MIWI curriculum to the interests of the summer institute cohort of scholars. The links below share the topics for our core seminars and our initial selective seminars. 

  • Challenges and opportunities in integrating mental and physical health
  • Home Lab: Human-centered research in context
  • Linking theory, hypotheses, and data
  • Methodologic considerations related to health disparities research
  • Designing a data collection protocol for integrating mental/physical health
  • Collecting biomarkers in population research: What, where, why, and how
  • Principles and systems of psychoneuroendocrinology
  • Linking and leveraging existing data to address new scientific questions
  • Ethical considerations
  • Integrative methods and scientific collaboration: You can’t spell “TEAM” without “I”
  • The Collaborative Care Model for addressing psychiatric-medical comorbidity in primary care

  • Social network analysis and integrative analysis of health data
  • Community-based participatory research (CPBR) as an orientation to scientific investigation
  • mHealth and mobile devices for data collection and intervention design
  • Community healthcare integration: How social determinantsimpact health services research
  • “Big data” at the intersection of mental and physical heath
  • Mixed Methods: Mind and body –Quantitative and qualitative

small work-groupSmall Work-Groups

MIWI Scholars will workshop their research proposals with a small group of peers and mentors during the institute. These work-groups will be organized by research topic and/or study population (e.g., older adults, diabetes, cancer) and consist of five scholars, a MIWI director mentor, and other program faculty. These small group sessions allow for collaboration between scholars and faculty to support scholars' specific training needs and their research proposals. 

individual meetingsProfessional Development

During and after the institute, the MIWI Training Program will support the professional development needs of its scholars. During the institute, scholars will be able to meet individually with mentors, other program faculty, and with our partnering representatives from Univesrity of Michigan insititutional resources during the institute. After the institute, MIWI will host monthly sessions addressing issues related to navigating the academy, tenure and promotion, and supporting scientific collaboration, dialogue, and networking.