Health, Medicine & Humanity

Health and medicine face challenges that are more complex than ever, shaped by rapid advances in science and technology, fragmented systems of care, and shifting social and environmental conditions. Traditional biomedical approaches alone cannot resolve chronic disease, mental health concerns, addiction, or broken trust in health systems, nor can they address the broader social and structural factors that influence health across communities.

The Health, Medicine, and Humanity (HMH) Initiative begins from the recognition that health is shaped not only by biology, but also by lived experience, place, culture, systems, and story. Grounded in the guiding principle of Pro Humanitate, HMH advances innovative, community-responsive models that place ethics, policy, creativity, and partnership at the heart of research, education, and practice.

Through this work, Wake Forest envisions a future in which science, medicine, ethics, and the humanities and arts are inseparably linked to advance individual and community health, well-being, and shared knowledge.

This vision means:

Deeply integrating medicine, social sciences, ethics, policy, and the arts/humanities through cross-campus and community partnerships to advance whole-person and whole-community well-being.
Listening first by recognizing that the most meaningful breakthroughs emerge from relationships of trust, mutual learning, and accountability.
Joining laboratory and data-driven science with the lived conditions that shape health, from housing and nutrition to belonging, stigma, and environmental context.
Embedding ethical reflection and policy leadership throughout research, education, and clinical practice so that innovation and implementation advance the health and wellbeing of all
Strengthening trust in health research and systems through openness, humility, compassion, and reciprocal partnership with patients, communities, and collaborators.

Wake Forest University is recognized nationally and globally as a university in which knowledge, empathy, and ethical reflection converge to transform education, research, and health for the flourishing of all. (Click to learn more.)

Wake Forest uniquely integrates a premier liberal arts foundation with a world-class medical center, creating a research ecosystem where health, medicine, and the humanities converge to solve complex human challenges. This synergy is anchored by the Department of Health and Exercise Science (HES), the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, the Sticht Center for Healthy Aging and Alzheimer’s Prevention, an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM). These core entities are empowered by interdisciplinary hubs such as the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), Wake Downtown, and the Center for Bioethics, Health, and Society (CBHS), ensuring that discovery is never siloed but shared across the institution.

At the forefront of global health, Wake Forest leads transformative research in Alzheimer’s disease, aging and mobility, cancer, and neurosciences. Our commitment to real-world application is best exemplified by the Department of Health and Exercise Science and the Department of Implementation Science, which bridge the gap between laboratory breakthroughs and rural or underserved communities. Whether through landmark clinical trials for cognitive health or innovative treatments for chronic disease, our researchers focus on the “science of the hand-off,” ensuring that medical advancements translate into measurable improvements in public health.

Beyond the data, Wake Forest humanizes the clinical experience through the Story-telling, Health, and Healing Initiative (SHHI), a national leader in narrative medicine that improves both patient outcomes and practitioner well-being. This focus on the human condition is further guarded by the CBHS, which provides critical ethical oversight for emerging frontiers like AI and regenerative medicine. This holistic approach extends to our students through the M-PATHS advising model, integrating mindfulness and character development into pre-health training. Guided by our Pro Humanitate motto, Wake Forest ensures that its leadership in health—from equitable commercialization through Wake Forest Innovations to compassionate dementia care—remains rooted in character, equity, and the common good.

Explore the Forest

More than 25 programs and centers are advancing this work.

Explore them all

Stories

Showing up & taking action

Medicine and the Military

Timothy Sell, PhD, PT, has been awarded $4.5 million from the Department of Defense to better understand and provide recommendations on injury prevention through physical interventions and equipment modifications.
Keeping Youth Athletes Safe

Joel Stitzel, PhD, and Jillian Urban, PhD, are pioneering research that improves the safety of youth football on and off the field.
Mentorship and Collaboration in Research

What leads to a successful lab? Collaboration. If you take a look into the Solberg-Woods Lab that is what you will see. Mackenzie Fitzpatrick, a fourth-year Molecular Medicine and Translational Science PhD student, shared that the collaborative environment is part of what initially drew her to the Solberg Woods Lab. This lab is composed of researchers at different levels of their careers – this mix helps add to the labs success – and is focused on identifying genes involved in traits associated with obesity and type two diabetes.
AI: The Future of Health Care

Metin Nafi Gurcan, PhD, leads Wake Forest’s Center for Artificial Intelligence Research, using AI to improve health equity, predict maternal mortality risk, and accelerate cancer care diagnostics.
People think knee pain is inevitable as they age. That may not be the case.

When Steve Messier started researching how to best treat pain caused by knee osteoarthritis, there was no cure for the debilitating condition.
Wearing a weighted vest to strengthen bones? Make sure you’re moving

More time spent standing or stepping while wearing a weighted vest showed positive changes in bone mineral density, according to a new weight loss study from Wake Forest University.
National Inventors Hall of Fame announces 2026 inductees

Two Wake Forest University School of Medicine researchers are among 15 innovation pioneers who will be honored in the 2026 class of National Inventors Hall of Fame ® Inductees
Research Exploration: From Genetic Disorders to NASA Wellness

Graça Almeida-Porada, MD, PhD, professor at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) and Christopher Porada, PhD, professor at WFIRM, lead the Porada Lab. Not only are they working to advance the outcomes of stem cell transplantation and gene therapy in fetal and neonatal patients with genetic disorders; they’re also working with NASA on how to mitigate the health risks of astronauts and space radiation exposure.
Don’t call it exercise

Wake Forest researcher Jason Fanning explains why framing physical activity as “movement” — not “exercise” — is key to helping older adults build lasting healthy habits and reduce chronic pain.
Professor Megan Bennett launches ambitious SPICE-D study to address food insecurity

For nearly four years, Megan Bennett has served as an assistant professor in Health and Exercise Science at Wake Forest. Yet her commitment to public health—and her two decades of research on chronic disease interventions—extends far beyond the classroom. This month, she’s launching her most ambitious project yet: Supporting People through Inclusive Cultural Eating for Diabetes, or SPICE-D. Bennett recently received an Academic Community Engagement (ACE) Fellowship(opens in a new tab), which will provide targeted support for the SPICE-D project.
We’re Putting Weighted Vests to the Test. Here’s What Our Research Shows.

Prof. Kristen Beavers discusses nearly a decade of Wake Forest research on weighted vests, their potential benefits for older adults losing weight, and what her landmark INVEST trial revealed about bone loss.
U.S. POINTER Study Shows Lifestyle Changes Improve Brain Health in Older Adults

A landmark two-year trial involving 2,111 older adults found that structured lifestyle changes — including diet, exercise, and cognitive challenge — measurably improved brain health and cognition.