Group-Based Behavioral and Lifestyle Interventions for Chronic Disease Management
During our August 2026 Grand Rounds event, we heard from three recent Osher post-doctoral research fellows whose work highlights the growing impact of integrative health research. Their presentations explored innovative, evidence-based approaches to chronic pain, tobacco cessation, and cardiometabolic health.
Presentations:
- Developing and Testing Non-pharmacologic Strategies for Chronic Pain and Pre-Frailty in Older Adults
- Improving Access to Tobacco Treatment among Cancer Survivors through Group-Based Delivery: A Quality Improvement Study
- A Qualitative Study to Explore Preferences for a Teaching Kitchen and Mindful Exercise Intervention Among Adults with Hypertension
Speakers:
Wren Burton, DC, MPH is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She completed her BSc in exercise science at the University of New England in 2017 and her chiropractic education at Palmer College of Chiropractic’s West Campus in 2020. Additionally, she completed postdoctoral fellowship training in Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Masters in Public Health in Clinical Effectiveness from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2023. Her current research work emphasizes the intersection of nonpharmacologic pain management and healthy aging, specifically operationalizing novel care models to increase access to care. She is a T90 Interdisciplinary Research Training Award recipient from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the US National Institutes of Health.
Rachel Rosen, PhD is a clinical psychologist and researcher in the Health Promotion and Resiliency Intervention Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. Previously, Rachel completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University, her pre-doctoral psychology internship in Behavioral Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and her post-doctoral fellowship through the Harvard Medical School Research Fellowship in Integrative Medicine. Broadly, Rachel’s research is focused on the development, evaluation, and implementation of behavioral and mind-body interventions for tobacco/substance use and co-occurring conditions.
Sarah Park, ND, MPH is a post-doctoral research fellow in the Division of Preventative Medicine and Osher Center for Integrative Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital under the mentorship of Dr. Howard Sesso. She is a naturopathic doctor by training and was the first in her profession to join the Harvard Medical School T32 Research Fellowship in Integrative Medicine. Dr. Park’s research broadly focuses on nutrition in the context of cardiometabolic health, and she plans to develop a digital behavioral intervention that combines culinary medicine and mindful exercise to promote health behavior change alongside GLP-1 therapy in adults with obesity.