We look at the whole picture, the entire lived experience that influences health.
Our work examines health through many lenses that intersect, and it often helps people who are underserved or experiencing trauma — for example, veterans suffering from PTSD, children with serious illness, low-income residents grappling with systemic racism and neglect, and others.
Our transdisciplinary community of Scholars and Fellows investigates critical questions, elevates evidence-based practices, and discovers cutting-edge solutions. These incredible thought leaders come from diverse fields—such as medicine, photobiology, atmospheric chemistry, epidemiology, and psychology—and their work examines the full spectrum of health, healing, and flourishing through many lenses. Here we share some highlights of their work.
In this fourth Nova Interview in Challenges, Fellow Alan C. Logan interviews Dr. Stephen J. Schoenthaler, a pioneer in the field of nutrition and mental health. They discuss the early beginnings of nutritional psychology and explore the many challenges at the intersection of nutrition, criminal justice, and mental health.
In the American Journal of Public Health, Nova Scholar Steve Woolf explores why life expectancy in the United States has progressively deteriorated since 1983.
In the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Nova Scholar Susan Prescott, Fellows Chris D’Adamo and Alan C. Logan, and other speakers from the recent Nova Campfire, “The Future of Food,” aggregates the rich, diverse conversations around ultra-processed foods (UPF).
In the Annals of Family Medicine, Nova Scholars Kurt Stange and Rebecca Etz and colleagues discuss how telemedicine emerged as an important tool for primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how some challenges prevented effective adoption and implementation.
In Pediatric Clinics of North America, Nova Fellow Carley Riley and colleagues describe how health professionals can foster trust, respect, and sustainable community partnerships to address child health and health equity. This case study provides a framework for other community-based partnerships, and suggests that these critical collaborations can help effectively address child health disparities and close health equity gaps disproportionately felt by children in underresourced communities.
Nova Scholar Steve Woolf and colleagues’ new report for the Northern Virginia Health Foundation offers a unique look at pre- and post-pandemic death rates in Northern Virginia, and underscores health disparities aggravated by race, ethnicity, and address.
In the Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, Nova Fellow Brita Roy and colleagues debunk the myth that women serve shorter medical school deanships, and say that academic medicine should consider novel solutions to address the persistent underrepresentation of women in dean roles.
Recent work from Nova Fellow Kirstin Aschbacher and colleagues in Psychosomatic Medicine studies longitudinal patterns of engagement with digital mental health interventions and suggest these interventions may be effective for patients who experience stigma and structural barriers to care.
In Challenges, Nova Scholar Susan Prescott’s new editorial highlights increasing loneliness as a reflection of complex social crises facing communities worldwide and threatening the health and well-being of people and the planet.
In JAMA Network, Nova Fellows Brita Roy and Carley Riley explore the connection between population well-being and associated cardiovascular disease mortality. The findings of this study suggest that population well-being, a measurable and modifiable metric, provides an immediate area of focus for improving cardiovascular health outcomes.
Nova Scholar George “Bud” Brainard’s work on the health impacts of nighttime light pollution is reviewed in a special issue of Science magazine. The review highlights critical areas for further research as well as recent developments in policy and technology to mitigate the negative effects of light pollution on human health.
In Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Nova Scholar Susan Prescott and colleagues aim to determine the safety and feasibility of dosage consumption recommendations for infant cashew nut spread introduction.
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Over the past thirty years, we’ve been part of a movement to shift the primary approach to health from a focus on disease to a more complete approach. As reflected in our tagline, “For Health of People, Places, and Planet,” how we are building on “person health” and looking at the context of peoples’ lives and communities as well as the health of the planet we all share.
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Healing is facilitated through safety, persistence, and trust.
Resources support us as we heal. They include reframing, responsibility, and positivity. “Making connections enabled participants to acquire and refine resources and skills that were essential in their healing journey. People also brought their own personal strengths to the journey.”
“Connection to others was an essential part of all the healing journeys.” Humans are social creatures, and even the most introverted of us need close relationships. Friends and family add meaning and value to life and help support us, in good times and bad.
When we experience relational trauma, relationships can feel scary, but reestablishing safety and trust in relationships is where the healing happens. (To be clear, we do not mean reestablishing safety and trust with abusers, but rather finding other healing relationships.)
“When safety and trust had been established, people were able to connect with helpers. The nature of the behaviours of helpers that fostered healing ranged from small acts of kindness to unconditional love.”
Healing probably means different things to different people, but one definition that emerged from the study is: “The re-establishment of a sense of integrity and wholeness.”
Healing was an emergent property that resulted from each individuals’ complex healing journey, a result of bridged connections between resources and relationships. “…they gradually found relief from suffering and began to exhibit emergent characteristics: a sense of hope, self-acceptance, and a desire to help others—the immediate precursors to healing.”
In varying degrees, “they were able to transcend their suffering and in some sense to flourish.”
Suffering is the ongoing pain from wounding.
There is debate about whether or not one actually needs to experience suffering on the path to healing.
Wounding happens when we experience physical or emotional harm. It can stem from chronic illness or by physical or psychological trauma for which we do not have the tools to cope, or a combination of those factors.
“The degree and quality of suffering experienced by each individual is framed by contextual factors that include personal characteristics, timing of their initial or ongoing wounding in the developmental life cycle and prior and current relationships.”
Characteristics: How predisposed someone may be to wounding/how many tools and resources someone may have to deal with trauma/illness.
Lifestages: Developmental timing plays an important role in the impact of trauma — young children often do not have the same resources as older adults.
Relationships: Relationships can provide solace and support for those suffering, while lack of healthy relationships can prolong suffering.
