The Science of Tai Chi and Qigong as Whole Person Health – Part II: Evidence Gaps and Opportunities for Future Research and Implementation
* By Gloria Y Yeh, Andrew C Ahn, Peter Wayne et al, April 2025, Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine 10.1089/jicm.2024.0958 *
Abstract
Background: The emerging paradigm of whole person health shares many core principles with traditional complementary and integrative health frameworks, including Tai Chi and Qigong (TCQ). Methods: In the fall of 2023, the Harvard Medical School Osher Center for Integrative Health hosted the inaugural international conference on The Science of Tai Chi & Qigong for Whole Person Health: Advancing the Integration of Mind-Body Practices into Contemporary Healthcare at Harvard Medical School. A two-part white paper was written to summarize key conference topics, findings, and issues. Results and Discussion: Part II presented here summarizes evidence gaps and future research opportunities, including: understudied clinical conditions and populations, impact of long-term TCQ training, understanding the impact of specific TCQ styles, training regimens, dosage, and contextual effects; implementation, cost-effectiveness, and medical utilization research; individual data meta-analysis, and teaching competencies, credentialing, and licensure. Part I of this white paper discusses the rationale for the conference, synthesizes the state of evidence for TCQ as rehabilitative and preventive tools for a range of clinical conditions, and summarizes the translational research informing therapeutic mechanisms associated with TCQ training.
About the author(s)
Gloria Y Yeh is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research program is based in the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where she serves as the Division’s Director of Mind-Body Research, and Director of the HMS Research Fellowship in Integrative Medicine (NIH T32 postdoctoral training fellowship). Her primary research focus is efficacy and mechanism of mind-body exercise in complex chronic illness. She is an internationally recognized leader in the field of mind-body research, including tai chi, yoga, and meditation. She is principal investigator or co-investigator on a number of NIH-funded studies investigating mind-body exercise, including two R01’s investigating tai chi and meditative breathing in patients with COPD. She has experience in the design and conduct of mind-body clinical trials, and expertise in mind-body intervention development and adaptation for chronic disease. Her research has investigated physiological, psychosocial, and behavioral outcomes such as exercise capacity, cardiorespiratory efficiency, physical activity, quality of life, mood, and self-efficacy. She is actively involved in teaching and training, and serves as academic and research mentor to post graduate research fellows and as faculty preceptor to medical residents in the Department of Medicine, Dr. Yeh is also a primary care physician at BIDMC Healthcare Associates.
Andrew C Ahn – MD, MPH, Chief Medical/Scientist at Labfront, United States. Democratizing Health Science Research with a focus on Antidisciplinary Approaches. Current Research Interests: Mathematical Analyses of Physiological Time Series; Incorporation of Wearables into Clinical Research; Bioelectromagnetics/Bioelectricity; Physiological Basis of Meditation, Acupuncture, and Integrative Therapies.
Peter Wayne, PhD, is an internationally recognized teacher of tai chi and qigong, uniquely qualified to bridge traditional Eastern wisdom with leading-edge contemporary science. He has 40 years of training experience in tai chi and qigong, and is the founder and director of the Tree of Life Tai Chi Center.
Wayne is also the director of research for the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, jointly based at the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he has led or collaborated on more than 20 National Institute of Medicine grants evaluating the physiological and psychological mechanisms underlying tai chi’s therapeutic effects. His commitment to translating academic research to educate mind-body practitioners and teachers is reflected in his book, Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi, which received an Award of Excellence in Medical Communication by the American Medical Writers Association
Assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Peter Wayne is also known for his playful and engaging teaching style. He has the ability to elucidate the principles of Eastern healing arts and provide insights into the underlying physiological processes that explain how tai chi improves health.
