Director’s Messages
Advancing Research on Whole Person Health
April 4, 2025
At the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), we have been working over the last half-decade to advance the concept of whole person health. From research to health care delivery, our health has historically been compartmentalized by individual conditions, organs, or other biologic systems. In the health care system, this means that co-occurring chronic diseases are usually treated separately. Once these diseases occur, the symptoms of disease progression are managed with medications or surgery, which carry the potential of side effects—too often, leaving important contributing factors unaddressed, such as poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, chronic stress, and poor sleep. Read more
Latest Messages From the Director
Can We Live Healthier and Spend Better on Health Care?
January 6, 2025
In December 2024, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) celebrated the close of its 25th year with a special anniversary celebration and a remarkable program focused on the economics and imperatives of whole person health. Read more
Coalition Kickoff for Whole Person Health
December 20, 2024
The inaugural stakeholder meeting of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) Coalition for Whole Person Health took place at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Natcher Center on November 1, 2024. NCCIH hosted this first meeting of the Coalition, which was attended by representatives from 60 member organizations with an interest in whole person health. My colleagues and I provided an overview of our work at NCCIH focused on whole person health and our collaborations across NIH, including with the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and with other Federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). We shared updates on our efforts to strengthen the research infrastructure for whole person health through different initiatives, including applications currently being reviewed for a funding opportunity on whole person research and the Research Across Complementary and Integrative Health (REACH) Institutions Virtual Resource Centers. I appreciated the opportunity to explore why advancing whole person health is so important right now and how doing so will help us understand how our bodies and minds respond to stressors or challenges to our health. Read more
BRAIN at 10: A View from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
November 1, 2024
This blog was originally posted on The BRAIN Blog.The BRAIN Initiative is marking a milestone—10 years of advancing neuroscience and neurotechnology research by funding innovative projects. Read more
Past Messages From the Director
- Expanding the Horizon in Pain Research
October 29, 2024 - The Promise of Applying a Whole Person Framework to Pain
September 30, 2024 - CARE for Health Brings Research to Primary Care Settings
September 25, 2024 - Understanding the Real Progress Driven by Artificial Intelligence
August 19, 2024 - Science Shouldn’t Be This Much Fun…But It Was on the Star Talk Podcast!
July 23, 2024 - Bringing Research Into the Real World of Health Care
July 10, 2024 - New Funding Opportunity To Advance the Field of Whole Person Research
June 20, 2024 - New Coalition Is Another Stepping Stone Toward Whole Person Health
June 10, 2024 - Disrupting the Disruptors: Convening a Research Discussion To Mitigate Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals
May 13, 2024 - NCCIH Heads to Cleveland for ICIMH
April 5, 2024 - Addressing Pain Requires Understanding How We Heal
March 27, 2024 - Let’s Leverage All of Us To Learn More About Health and Disease in Diverse Populations
February 19, 2024 - Looking to the Past and Future in NCCIH’s 25th Anniversary Year
January 24, 2024 - A Whole Person Focus on Heart Disease
January 9, 2024 - A Symphony of Experts Comes Together To Discuss Research on Music and Health
November 28, 2023 - REACHing the Next Generation of Clinician-Scientists
November 1, 2023