2024-2028 Annual International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health (ICIMH) - PROJECT SUMMARY/ ABSTRACT This R13 five-year application requests support for the 2024-2028 annual scientific conference entitled, International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health (ICIMH). The 2024 ICIMH is to be held in Cleveland, OH from April 11-13, 2024; in Seattle, WA from March 4-6, 2025; in Salt Lake City, UT from April 21-23, 2026; in Minneapolis, MN from April 13-15, 2027; and the 2028 ICIMH will be determined closer to the date. The conference is sponsored by the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health (Academic Consortium), a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation which represents nearly 80 academic health centers and health systems in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada and Mexico, with programs focusing on education, research , and clinical delivery of integrative medicine and models of whole health. This conference will showcase original scientific research involving integrative health therapies and lifestyle medicine approaches, using keynote and plenary presentations, oral and poster abstracts, symposia, and workshops. Basic science, clinical, and health service researchers will present original research and moderate panel presentations selected through a de-identified peer-review process, using a pool of 80-100 expert reviewers. Leaders in the field are invited to provide keynote addresses and moderate concurrent research presentations. The Oversight Committee is composed of Co-Chairs, the Chairs of the Program, Scientific Review, and Fundraising Committees, Chair of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of the Academic Consortium. The 18-member Program Committee, representing diverse leaders from the conventional and complementary medical research, education , and clinical communities, has key responsibility for planning the meeting content, including selecting the plenary speakers and meeting symposia. The 2022 conference in Phoenix, AZ, had 700 attendees, representing over 62 academic institutions and organizations from 14 countries; 69% of the 353 scientific abstracts submitted were accepted for oral or poster presentation. The post-conference evaluation collected reflected 98.9% of participants rated the conference quality as excellent or good. This grant is specifically aimed at increasing attendance at the conference of students, trainees, new investigators, and others with financial barriers to attendance. Most of the funding will be directed at reducing the student registration rate and providing travel scholarships. Travel scholarships will be awarded based on submission of an abstract with strong reviewer ratings, financial need, and bringing diversity to the meeting. Diversity in meeting attendees will be assessed in part based on training in integrative health fields that are less represented among established researchers. Overall, the ICIMH has distinguished itself as one of the largest and highest quality scientific conferences on integrative medicine and health globally via our stated goal of strengthening research and collaboration in integrative healthcare and whole health around the world.
