NIH’s National Center on Complementary and Integrative Health Launches Whole-Person Initiative

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has launched an effort to advance research on whole-person health and create an integrated knowledge network of healthy physiological functions. “Biomedical research is largely organized around the study of specific organs and diseases. In contrast, we do much less research on health itself, which is an integrated process involving the whole person,” said Helene M. Langevin, M.D., director of NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, which leads the NIH-wide program.

Planned over the next 5 years, NCCIH will unveil the program in stages. According to the Center, “it will build on the NIH Human Reference Atlas and the Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP) to connect the complex anatomy and function of the body’s different organs and systems into a single “map.” Linking clinical measures (blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol) to other physiological functions, the goal is to an interactive model that serves the whole-person.

Defining “whole person health” means looking at the body in its entirety—not just separate organs or body systems—and considering multiple factors that promote health. This shifting the approach, NIH believes it can help answer other scientific questions in new ways. Saying it will help build on understandings about what drives declines in health pathways, the NCCIH hopes to build stronger health “restoration” in all areas.

More information about the research program is available on the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT) website, here: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/NHCW3mdunUCF3ULUAvilYQ/project-details/11224772#description.

NCCIH conducts and supports rigorous scientific investigation into the fundamental science, safety, and effectiveness of complementary and integrative health approaches, as well as their roles in improving health and health care in a whole-person health framework. News releases, fact sheets and other NCCIH-related materials are available on the NCCIH website.