Director's Message

Melinda Ring, MD
Director, Osher Center for Integrative Health
Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine-General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics

Thank you for your interest in the Osher Center for Integrative Health

We strongly believe that integrative medicine is an approach to health that may be beneficial for all patients. Integrative medicine is a philosophy and practice of how we care for patients and ourselves:

Integrative medicine is authentic medicine - It's what patients and providers believe in their hearts and minds is the right treatment, based on all current evidence and informed by their beliefs, values and experiences.

Integrative medicine is everyday medicine - It’s the way you life your life, the food you eat, the environment you live in, the relationships you maintain.

And Integrative Medicine is, simply, Medicine. - It is using the best approach to help you not just treat disease, but flourish in your life.

While integrative medicine has been referred to as the “new” medicine, it is in many ways a return to principles of medicine from the time of Hippocrates: a focus on science-based practices while acknowledging the body’s natural healing capacity . By combining conventional Western medicine with time-tested, proven practices from around the world, we expand our care options for a variety of conditions and diseases. By remembering the core principles of healing and the need to care for the whole patient, we can better relieve suffering. 

​Our vision for the future of individual care and ultimately, our healthcare system revolves around introducing new integrative care models into the mainstream. We’re dedicated to taking a leadership role alongside the four other Osher Centers for Integrative Health to make our mark on academic medicine, community outreach, and public policy. I look forward to working with our partner centers to create innovative clinical models of care, advance medical education, and collaborate on research initiatives.