NIH drops its old departmental structure to rebuild its website as eight hubs

The NIH is finally putting people before its own structure. Starting Monday, the agency’s sprawling collection of websites will collapse into eight themed hubs, each focused on a different kind of health information, from rare diseases to cancer to clinical studies. The move ends a system that forced users to navigate NIH’s internal alphabet soup of institutes and centers, a structure Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania, compared to “trying to find something on the old website required the skills of an Egyptologist.”

The redesign comes after nearly two decades of slow growth and a brutal reset. NIH’s digital footprint ballooned to more than 700 separate websites, each with its own backend architecture and hosting platform. Information appeared in five or six places at once, sometimes in slightly different forms. The public noticed during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the NIH became a central source for fast-moving health guidance — and the confusion became obvious.

“It became a dramatic illustration of a dysfunctional website whose dysfunction wasn’t evident pre-Covid,” said Hall Jamieson.

From 700 Websites to Eight Hubs

The new design is a deliberate shift away from the old NIH hierarchy. Instead of landing pages for each institute and center, visitors will enter through one of eight thematic hubs: health, research, data, clinical studies, rare diseases, technology, cancer, and grants. Each hub sits above the agency’s internal divisions, grouping related topics together rather than forcing users to hunt through a directory of acronyms.

The beta version launched this week, though it is still under development and some features are not yet working. Search appears to be missing, and the site will continue to evolve over the coming months. During the transition, NIH’s existing websites will stay live, but they will sunset on a rolling basis “as critical and mandated content is verified and redirects are put in place,” according to Amanda Fine, the NIH deputy director for public affairs.

The consolidation is part of a larger push to shrink NIH’s digital footprint. The agency’s website sprawl reached a peak of more than 700 separate websites, with information duplicated across multiple locations. That duplication created confusion for anyone trying to find official health guidance.

How the Overhaul Began

The redesign started under President Biden. In 2022, the NIH developed its first-ever five-year strategic communications plan. Working groups made up of more than 70 staffers from communications offices across NIH’s 27 institutes and centers drafted a plan to streamline the hundreds of NIH-owned websites to just one per institute. The massive undertaking was set to phase in over five years, starting in 2025.

That plan never saw the light of day. When the Trump administration took office, it fired hundreds of communications staffers as part of a government-wide reduction in the federal workforce. Millions of NIH websites were effectively frozen for nearly 18 months. The remaining dozen or so communications employees were left with a task: push forward website consolidation under the new administration.

Fine said her team worked to develop a data-driven process to better understand how people arrive at NIH websites and how they navigate them once there. That helped identify where users get stuck and which information gets the most traffic. The content on the new site is taken directly from existing NIH websites, she said.

What the New Site Actually Does

The core promise is speed and trust. The goal, as Fine put it, is “to make trusted NIH information across the agency easier and faster to find.” The eight hubs are designed to reflect what people actually seek, rather than what NIH’s internal structure demands.

The beta version is live now, but it is not finished. Some functions, including search, do not yet appear to be operational. The site will continue to evolve over the coming months. During the transition, NIH’s existing websites will stay live, but they will sunset on a rolling basis “as critical and mandated content is verified and redirects are put in place,” Fine told STAT.

Why the Old System Failed

The old system was a mess of duplication. Information appeared in five or six locations at once, sometimes in slightly different forms. The public noticed during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the NIH became a central source for fast-moving health guidance — and the dysfunction of the website was exposed.

Hall Jamieson’s comparison to an Egyptologist was not hyperbole. Finding a specific piece of health information required understanding NIH’s internal structure, a skill most people do not possess.

The pandemic made the problem visible. When the public turned to the NIH and other federal science agencies for guidance about the fast-moving public health crisis, the dysfunction of the website was exposed.

Key Facts

• More than 700 NIH-owned websites, down to one fully connected environment
• Eight thematic hubs: health, research, data, clinical studies, rare diseases, technology, cancer, grants
• Search function missing in beta
• Sunset timeline: rolling, as verified
• Consolidation began under President Biden in 2022

The Bottom Line

The NIH’s website overhaul is a necessary fix to a sprawling, fragmented web presence. After 700 separate websites and 18 months of freeze, the agency is finally rolling out a streamlined design that puts eight thematic hubs ahead of its own internal structure.

The beta version’s missing search and unfinished features are a reminder that the transition will take time. But the direction is clear: the NIH is moving from a fragmented, confusing web presence to a single, connected environment where trusted health information is easier and faster to find.

Source material: “NIH rolling out streamlined website to help public find information more easily,” STAT.

digital transformation · government tech · health information · NIH · website redesign