ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the ideas, issues, trends, and themes that will shape the future, and in turn, the future of the institutions of health but always with the cutting edge of adaptability in view. Speculation about the future is always problematic, and projecting the future for the institutions of health there is no exception. Ideas like they have always formed the foundation of the approaches the Western and Northern societies have fashioned to improve their health. The word “holistic” has applied perhaps more frequently in the health sector than in any other. A little over thirty years ago, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) were conceived. Since the development of NIH, however, research has been done that has generated a systematic corpus of information. Much of the practice of a modern medicine is based upon the biomedical research conducted by NIH. Yet neither the practice of medical care nor the research agendas of NIH have examined the healthy person.
