Virtual Discussions, Public Comments, and July 1 Town Hall Move NCCIH’s Strategic Planning Forward | NCCIH

Virtual Discussions, Public Comments, and July 1 Town Hall Move NCCIH’s Strategic Planning Forward | NCCIH

Helene Langevin, M.D.

June 23, 2020

Like many others missing professional conferences this year due to COVID-19, I worried that the cancellation of the International Congress on Integrative Medicine & Health (ICIMH) in April would mean lost opportunities. I had hoped for the chance to connect with members of the complementary and integrative health research community to garner insights that I could bring back to NCCIH and use to inform the development of our next strategic plan.

As it turned out, ICIMH successfully transitioned several of the sessions originally slated for the meeting into robust online discussions, including my plenary presentation and an online town hall. It was a wonderful opportunity for in-depth interactions and input from research community members. We also transitioned our own June 5 NCCIH Advisory Council meeting into a virtual meeting, which afforded us another excellent opportunity to hear a variety of perspectives on whole person health and multimodal therapies from our Council members, as we discussed our strategic planning efforts and progress. 

Our strategic planning discussions at the virtual ICIMH plenary and town hall and our June Council meeting encompassed a wide array of topics—education and training for health professionals, the design of clinical trials, ways to deepen our research into pain, and multimodal approaches to managing a variety of conditions. The deep interest and engagement reflected in these discussions are a testament to the shared purpose within the complementary and integrative health research community to advance our understanding of human health and serve as a catalyst for thinking about the health of the whole person.

Read more and register for July 1 Town Hall