NPI are a field in which many amalgamations occur between scientific knowledge and opinion, due to their objective—human health—and their operational mode, which involves immaterial protocols. However, it is essential to learn to distinguish science from research amidst the multiplication of tools and information channels (Klein, 2020), particularly on the subject of NPI. The same communication channels transmit both scientific knowledge and beliefs, opinions, comments... Information of different statuses becomes intertwined. Knowledge can turn into the belief of a particular community, and vice versa.

Research, on the other hand, pertains to questions for which we do not yet have answers. These well-defined questions still have no answer. A researcher works on the subject using various methods and strategies. Research fosters doubt. Scientific societies work to advance research within a specific territory and theme.

Given that NPI are universal health protocols centered on individuals and administered by humans, an international multidisciplinary scientific society needed to be created. This has been achieved since 2021. This society is called the Non-Pharmacological Intervention Society (NPIS).

Accessible Protocols in Consultation

• Enhanced Quality and Safety: Strengthens the quality and safety of existing practices through formalization, harmonization, and securitization.
• Integration with Professional Software: Codified NPI can be integrated into healthcare management software.
• Digital Documentation: Access to documentation from computers, tablets, or smartphones for ease of use.
• Broad Validation: Extends validation to all relevant professionals in the region.
• Quick and Easy Access: Facilitates rapid access to information at critical decision-making moments for prevention and care.
• Simplicity in Tracking: Eases the follow-up and evolutionary process of best implementation practices (e.g., identifying barriers, professional leadership, availability of training and support).

Quality Control and Adherence to Protocols

• Traceability: Utilizes unique coded protocols for tracking.
• Strengthened Care Link: Enhances the relationship between care provision and patient support.
• Monitoring Relevant Indicators: Provides tools for tracking key performance indicators.
• Continuous Education Tool: Serves as a resource for ongoing professional development.
• Regular Updates: Incorporates regular updates based on user feedback.

Means of Valuation

• Response to Identified Multidisciplinary Issues: Addresses problems identified by healthcare teams in a specific territory.
• Extended Roles for Various Professionals: Expands the roles of many professionals, particularly non-physicians.
• Elimination of Ineffective Protocols: Phases out protocols that are ineffective, hazardous, or costly.
• Reduction in Meeting Time: Decreases the need for multiple meetings focused on intervention planning.
• Support for Innovation: Encourages professionals to experiment with new practices, boosting their confidence.
• Financial Valuation: Ensures appropriate financial and resource allocation for effective implementation.

An alliance for NPI is essential today in response to siloed proposals from various disciplines (biology, psychology, public health), professions (medical, paramedical, educational, social), sectors (prevention, care, support for autonomy, social services, education, end-of-life care, disability), and currents (traditional or scientific medicine) at both national and supranational levels. The NPIS brings together these scattered and sometimes divided stakeholders to foster better understanding, practice, and recognition of NPI. The scientific society contributes to developing an NPI ecosystem that is often overlooked. It mobilizes hundreds of professionals and users worldwide to address the public health challenges of the 21st century that are widely recognized.

It highlights essential NPI and best practices to be delivered to the right people at the right time in their journey without criticizing other health solutions. Specifically, the NPIS enables:

• Research stakeholders to develop, evaluate, and promote NPI.
• Care, prevention, and social support professionals to enhance their skills and access best practice recommendations and implementation tools for NPI.
• Health operators to choose, organize, track, consolidate, secure, and sustain investments in NPI.
• National and supranational health agencies to improve their knowledge for designing effective strategies regarding NPI.
• Governments, non-governmental organizations, user associations, and health actor federations to establish a common language within a defined scope to create just, equitable, and sustainable policies.

After establishing a standardized evaluation model, the NPIS contributes to an interprofessional, intersectoral, and bipartisan alliance in favor of NPI. Through an annual global summit, it gathers all stakeholders in the ecosystem during the third week of October, known as the NPIS Summit. This significant event discusses the economic and regulatory structuring of the ecosystem with all parties involved. The 2024 edition will take place in a highly symbolic venue, the Cité Universitaire in Paris, a quintessential humanist space open to the world, science, and peace, created between the two world wars last century. Everyone can participate and contribute to this international dynamic aimed solely at legitimizing NPI within health system offerings without disparaging other solutions. This coalition is called the NPIS Alliance.

Indeed, the NPI Registry contributes to the development of precision medicine. For example, how can we advance this field in the non-pharmacological treatment of pain without confusing patients when a prestigious medical school like Stanford publishes such a vague, incomplete, and unranked list on its website?

• Physical activity
• Acupressure
• Acupuncture
• Application of heat or cold
• Aquatherapy
• Art therapy
• Biofeedback
• Family coaching
• Individual coaching
• Psychological conditioning
• Desensitization
• Therapeutic education
• Occupational therapy
• Horticultural therapy
• Hypnosis
• Physiotherapy
• Massage lotions
• Meditation
• Music therapy
• Posturology
• Companion presence
• Psychosocial support
• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)
• Comfort therapy
• Theatre therapy
• Psychosocial therapy
• Tonification and strengthening
• Yoga

How many hopes dashed? How much time wasted? How many futile efforts? How much money squandered? How many unnecessary carbon emissions from transport? This subtly highlights pharmacological treatments and pain surgeries, which have precise contents and proven effects. The NPIS and its partners propose a solution to break this deadlock in favor of those affected by health issues. The goal is to provide reliable information on the most relevant NPI. It is also about no longer opposing pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies, but rather associating them wisely and at the right time.

The term NPI has been used by scientists working in the health field since 1975. However, it is not the only term; other similar terms are used synonymously, especially in PubMed. There are ten English terms to describe non-pharmacological processes and twenty-eight to describe methods of operation. An exhaustive inventory of NPI on a scientific article search engine is currently impossible due to the variety of terms researchers use, each with distinct meanings: rehabilitation intervention, psychosocial intervention, mental intervention, cognitive intervention, psychological intervention, behavioral intervention, psychosomatic intervention, nutrition intervention, dietary intervention, food intervention, physical intervention, body intervention, exercise intervention, manual intervention, salutogenic intervention, natural intervention, self-help intervention, nursing intervention, therapy intervention, care intervention, disease management intervention, multimodal intervention...

A search on PubMed from August 15, 2024, indicates 55,689 articles citing the term "non-pharmacological" or its equivalent up to 2023. While these figures do not challenge the trend, they are likely underestimated due to the database's focus on health products rather than services, biological treatments over psychosocial ones, studies on North American populations, and journals published by North American organizations. This aligns with an official U.S. government site managed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information and hosted by the National Library of Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A search on PubMed from August 15, 2024, also reveals 11,642 articles citing the term "non-pharmacological intervention" or its equivalent up to 2023. Both curves demonstrate an increase since 2000, with a notable acceleration since 2010.

The French National Authority for Health has been encouraging the use of the term NPI in health since 2011.