Todays launch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common FundsBridge to Artificial Intelligence (Bridge2AI)program is a critical step towards expanding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in biomedical and behavioral research. The initiative will help promote the development oftools, resources, and richly detailed, well-curated datasets necessary to advance the field and help researchers tackle some of our most challenging research questions.Among the exciting projects that the program will support is one particularly relevant to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), dedicated to better understanding the factors that promote good health and health restoration, orsalutogenesis.

Much of biomedical research and health care ecosystems focus on understanding and addressing the processes that drive disease, or pathogenesis. But the process of healing and moving back toward health is given much less attention. Does salutogenesis consist of pathogenesis in reverse, or do we have built-in salutogenic pathways that become activated during health restoration? Furthermore, does the process of healing make one stronger than before? Without research aimed at answering these questions, answers that could help us better understand how to maximize our years of healthy life will remain elusive.