East-West Medicine Fellowship

The UCLA Center for East-West Medicine (CEWM) offers Fellowship Training in Integrative Medicine to physicians who have recently completed an ACGME-accredited residency program in internal medicine or family medicine. 

Two distinct junior faculty-level fellowships on integrative medicine are East-West subspecialty consultative and East-West primary care (currently not available). Both fellowship programs are designed to train physicians to become outstanding academic leaders, clinicians and teachers within the field of integrative medicine. The program offers intensive training in the basic theory and practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and other Complementary and Integrative Medicine (CIM) disciplines and provides extensive clinical training through the use of evidence-informed therapies. Both tracks are approved by the American Board of Integrative Medicine and will allow graduates to become board certified in integrative medicine.

Graduates will be equipped to integrate their prior western biomedical training with TCM care and integrative health principles to evaluate and care for a wide range of patient conditions regardless of illness severity or comorbidities. This expertise will be applied across both settings of primary care and subspecialty practice, and will help broaden the available toolkit of the practicing physician and evolving healer.

Our Center’s Mission is to achieve our mission of improving health, well-being and the quality of life of all people by blending the best of Modern Western medicine with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and providing healthcare that is safe, effective, affordable and accessible, we are dedicated to training the next generation of physicians who will become experts in Integrative East-West Medicine.

Under the Department of Medicine at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, the Center for East-West Medicine is a busy, outpatient consultative practice that sees nearly 40,000 patient visits annually across four clinical sites, with referrals from the entire UCLA primary care and subspecialty network including pain management, rheumatology, neurology, gastroenterology, women’s health, cardiology, allergy/immunology, sports medicine, orthopedics, head and neck surgery and thoracic surgery.

Specific areas of clinical focus include:

• Chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia, neuropathy, and failed back syndromes
• Autoimmune conditions such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease and inflammatory bowel diseases
• Gastrointestinal conditions such as IBS, IBD and chronic abdominal pain
• Head and neck disorders such as chronic sinusitis
• Neurologic conditions such as headache/migraine and neuropathic pain
• Women’s health such as infertility, dysmenorrhea, menopausal symptoms, endometriosis
• Integrative Oncology

Fellowship training includes the following key components:

• Extensive clinical training in the CEWM consultative clinics
• Formal training in TCM theory and acupuncture
• Participation in teaching of trainees rotating through CEWM as well as undergraduate/medical student courses at UCLA
• Regular academic conferences on a broad range of relevant topics as well as unique case discussions and journal clubs.
• Involvement in research, education and quality improvement projects in collaboration with faculty and staff at CEWM and the UCLA Division of General Internal Medicine
• Participation in lectures, academic conferences and hands-on workshops conducted by experts found locally, nationally and internationally

Core Curriculum and Clinical Training:

Foundations of East-West and Integrative Medicine

• Clinical precepting with East-West expert faculty in our consultative clinics
• Participation in our UCLA Summer course - Introduction to Integrative East-West Medicine
• Training in the theory and practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine and integration with western biomedical care.
  • Weekly didactic and experiential learning sessions with TCM experts
  • These sessions, in addition to a robust clinical experience, allow MD and DO fellowship graduates to combine Western Medicine and TCM principles effectively and independently without any prior knowledge of TCM.

Differentiation as an East-West expert and development as a physician healer.

• Continued clinical precepting and building a patient panel and advancement to junior attending
• Opportunity to rotate in the inpatient East-West consultative service and with affiliated programs
• Completion of a capstone academic project with longitudinal mentorship, leading to a poster/publication
• Support to prepare for the ABoIM examination

Training logistics:

The fellowship is a junior faculty-level position within the Department of Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. Compensation includes a competitive benefits package, an educational enrichment fund for conferences and travel, and paid vacation and holidays.

Graduates are also eligible to sit for the American Board of Integrative Medicine board exam following successful completion of the fellowship.

Successful applicants are US-trained MDs and DOs with a strong interest in Integrative Medicine who have completed a residency in Internal Medicine or Family Medicine. Other specialties will also be considered based on background and interest. Because of the educational nature of the program and its close relationship to the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, ideal applicants should also have an interest in teaching and developing training programs for residents and medical students.

Training Locations:

Clinical training is primarily outpatient, with three clinical sites including Santa Monica, Westlake Village, Torrance. Inpatient clinical opportunities are also available.

Benefits of the Fellowship:

• Training from the CEWM integrative East-West medicine faculty and clinicians
• Opportunity to learn from UCLA Integrative Medicine Collaborative specialist faculty
• Involvement in research, education, and publishing projects
• Upon completion, you will be qualified to take the Integrative Medicine Board Certification exam -- this fellowship is approved by the American Board of Integrative Medicine (ABoIM).
• Clinical Instructor level junior faculty position at UCLA
• Fellows will be given priority consideration for a UCLA faculty appointment after completion of the fellowship program

Application Process:

The fellowship application is accepted a year prior to the start date, ie: the fellowship cycle starting July 2023, applications are accepted between July 1-Nov 1, 2022. To download the application and on how to submit it, please click on the fellowship program track for more information.

Integrative Medicine Fellowship Programs:

• East-West Subspecialty consultative track
• East-West Primary care track (currently not available)