Wellness Initiative for the Nation (WIN), a plan to proactively prevent disease and illness, promote health and productivity, and create a wellness-based health care system for all Americans, was developed in 2008 under the leadership of the Samueli Institute. The Institute, in collaboration with a Systems Wellness Advanced Team (SWAT) comprised of health policy advisors, health services researchers and health care providers, created WIN to ensure that integrative health care, prevention and wellness are included in the dialogue associated with the upcoming health care reform legislation.
Consistent with the Samueli Institute's mission is "to transform health care through the science of wellness and whole-person healing," the Institute has taken an active role in the national conversation about health care reform. It has ensured that WIN was closely aligned with other efforts to create a more healthy nation, including
Healthy People 2010; the Institute of Medicine’s reports on health care quality, transformation, and integrative medicine; the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy report
and, from renowned advocacy groups, reform thought pieces such as a “Wellness Trust.”
A primary goal of WIN was the establishment of a trans-Agency initiative to focus on the development of policies and programs for lifestyle-based chronic disease prevention and management, integrative health care practices and health promotion. When the national health care reform process resulted in the passage of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), it included such a trans-Agency initiative in the form of the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council comprised of 17 federal agencies, and a external Advisory Group.
Now that the Council has been established and has released its mandated National Prevention Strategy, the Institute is placing increasing emphasis on the subsequent phases envisioned by WIN:
- Creation of a new SWAT team of national leaders in health promotion, disease prevention, and integrative medicine to be joined by representatives from the business and private sector, public policy and the media to provide leadership for health promotion and prevention programs;
- Refinement of the WIN paradigm to ensure timeliness and appropriateness of its vision, strategies, and tactics; and
- Creation of parallel legislative and Agency rulemaking tracks to support and provide incentives for effective public and private wellness initiatives throughout the nation.
To download the WIN document, please click here.