The funds will establish UCSD’s REACH Center for Translational Science on Whole Person Health, expanding and linking others’ research.
UC San Diego School of Medicine’s Centers for Integrative Health has received a five-year, $6.2 million grant from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at the National Institutes of Health to establish the REACH Center for Translational Science on Whole Person Health.
“Whole person health” aims to promote health and prevent disease by addressing physical, social and emotional factors that contribute to overall wellbeing, incorporating a patient’s values and beliefs. It emphasizes personalized, coordinated care across different health care providers and disciplines.
“Conventional medicine is hyper-specialized, and that’s been extremely powerful for helping us cure disease and make advancements in health, but we aren’t just separate organs or body systems,” Cassandra Vieten, PhD, clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine at UCSD School of Medicine and director of the UCSD Center for Mindfulness, said in a press release.
The new initiative is led by Vieten, Gene “Rusty” Kallenberg, MD, professor emeritus in UCSD’s Department of Family Medicine at and founding director of the Centers for Integrative Health, and Ryan Bradley, ND, MPH, associate professor at the UCSD Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science.
The three will endeavor to advance research in whole person health through strategic partnerships between UCSD and accredited institutions specializing in complementary and integrative health modalities such as acupuncture, physical therapy, naturopathic medicine and East Asian medicine.
As many of these institutions offer training in whole person health but lack access to research and funding opportunities and cutting-edge technology, “the REACH Center will create a virtual resource hub for these schools so that they can have access to the world-class biomedical research infrastructure that we have here at UC San Diego,” Vieten said.
The hope is to transform scientific discoveries into real-world health solutions for patients.
Participants will receive micro-credential training in research methodologies, guidance on developing pilot projects and access to UCSDs state-of-the-art facilities, including the CIT Biomarker Lab, the Center for Microbiome Innovation at Jacobs School of Engineering and the Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute.
UC San Diego can also benefit from collaborative research with these institutions, according to Vieten.
