Situation:

A national foundation dedicated to improving human health and well-being and advancing the cause of mind/body spiritual healing, education and research wished to create a strategic plan for a new medical research institute. This institute would examine the effect of mind/body practices on health and wellbeing through a systems biology approach that included mind/body practices (such as meditation, yoga, breathing techniques, diet, massage, strength training and regular sleep) and the use of new technologies in fields such as genomics, epigenomics, the microbiome, artificial intelligence and integrative medicine.

This was at a time when mounting evidence for the role of the mind in disease and healing was leading to a greater acceptance of mind/body medicine. Despite many promising developments, however, clinical medicine still had not moved to embrace the mind/body connection. More evidence-based research was needed to clarify the relative efficacy of different mind/body therapies and patient characteristics that might help to predict outcomes.

The Personalized Wellness Medical Institute would focus on creating hard clinical data around recent developments and new discoveries in this area.

Actions:

Phase I: Strategic Assessment
NJK+A conducted a strategic assessment of the scientific state of the mind/body connection and personalized wellness/medical approaches in order to assess a new research institute in the field, its opportunities, and market potential, as well as the feasibility of launching as a new organization. A planning, organizational, and financing framework was proposed.

Phase II: Organizational, Financial and Operational Planning
NJK+A developed an integrated strategic plan for a new Personalized Wellness Medical Institute, encompassing mission/vision and organizational, financial, and operational options and strategies. An implementation timeline and budget was proposed, which included the following areas:

• • Research strategy
  • Organization and governance
  • Core operating structure
  • Financial modeling
  • Membership and affiliations
  • Funding strategy
  • Industry and technology strategy
  • Recruitment
  • Facility selection and buildout
  • Education
  • Social media and communications strategy

Results:

NJK+A examined a major paradigm shift occurring in science and medicine from a deterministic, disease focused approach in Western medicine to a more holistic and proactive approach to healthcare that focused on understanding the causes of complex disease, predicting susceptibility to disease, preserving wellness and protecting health in spite of susceptibility. Once disease occurred, the focus shifted to restoring function with targeted individualized therapies.

This paradigm shift was being driven by recent scientific developments, such as the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, a new understanding of the epigenome and microbiome which influence genome expression, the discovery of neuroplasticity through which the brain can “heal” the body by forming new neural connections, and new approaches to medicine such as integrative medicine.

These developments have shown that genetics is not destiny. Instead, managing the environment and the body throughout a lifetime can help to influence or modify genomic activity. Furthermore, the definition of wellbeing now encompasses far more than just the physical health of the patient, but encompasses the emotional, spiritual, social, financial and environmental factors that can influence true wellbeing.

The strategic plan for a Personalized Wellness Medical Institute examined these trends and new technologies and the foundation for a new approach. The plan suggested areas of research focus, proposed collaborations with researchers and educational institutions throughout the country, faculty recruitment, the development of intellectual property, industry collaborations and community/ patient engagement as well as the dissemination of results through education and training and policy development.

Governance structures, funding mechanisms and financial requirements were also defined.

Selected Resources:

• www.imconsortium.org
• www.globalwellnessinstitute.org
• The Wellness Moonshot
• www.bensonhenryinstitute.org
• www.nccih.nih.gov
• Super Brain: Unleashing the Explosive Power of Your Mind to Maximize Health, Happiness, and Spiritual Well-being, Deepak Chopra, MD, Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD, Penguin Random House, 2012
• Super Genes, Unlock the Astonishing Power of Your DNA for Optimum Health and Wellbeing, Deepak Chopra, MD, and Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD, Harmony Books, 2015
• The Gene: An Intimate History, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Simon & Schuster, 2016