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Director's Message

On behalf of the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine I invite you to become acquainted with the center and our work.

Our Mission

To promote integrative medicine by: 1) conducting rigorous fundamental and clinical research on complementary healing practices, 2) educating medical students, health professionals and the public about these practices, and 3) creating a model of clinical care that emphasizes healing of the whole person.

Our Vision

To be the preeminent national and international academic center for research, education and clinical practice in integrative medicine.

About Our Center

The Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine is an academic center focused on scientific research and education in the broad field of complementary and alternative medicine. The Center was established in early 2000 through a generous gift of $5.7 million from Henry and Susan Samueli. With a growing interest from the public in the use of complementary and alternative approaches for maintaining wellness, preventing disease, and treating specific illness, the need for a Center to conduct rigorous scientific investigations of the physiological effects of these interventions became evident. Education in this field has become a high priority. The medical community itself is becoming more and more interested in complementary or “integrative” approaches that embrace non-conventional medical interventions as a part of medical treatment, if they are evidence-based and supported by a foundation of solid scientific research. UC Irvine is taking a leadership role in exploring new frontiers in complementary and integrative medicine, putting some of these new approaches into practice with our new Birch Street clinic in integrative medicine. We also are working to educate both the medical and the lay communities about the benefits and cautions associated with the new approaches to medical practice.