HEAL-IM About Us Admissions Core Curriculum Culinary Medicine Elective Additional Opportunities Financial Support Our Team Core Curriculum HEAL-IM utilizes an innovative curriculum that provides a firm foundational knowledge of Integrative Health practices and domains during the first two years at the same time students are receiving training in conventional western medical practice. Home Education HEAL IM Core Curriculum Pre-Clinical Years During pre-clinical years, the HEAL-IM medical student curriculum includes: a set of nationally recognized online integrative educational modules, a seminar series covering a broad group of core Integrative practices, and experiential skill building workshop series in Mindfulness and Culinary Medicine. Building on these didactic and skill building elements are several more applied, clinically-based Integrative training experiences, including multidisciplinary patient case conferences, Integrative practitioner clinical shadowing, and a 4th year elective at the UCI Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute. HEAL-IM has undoubtedly been one of the most important aspects of my medical training thus far. The monthly seminars often touch on modalities of healing that are traditionally overlooked in the allopathic curriculum and I have personally had to deal with my own skepticism and bias while exploring the scientific basis and validity of treatments like biofeedback and traditional Chinese medicine. The engaging, hands-on learning is always fun, but I am most thankful to be able to apply healthy changes to my own life presently and keep a holistic health framework in mind for my clinical interactions. -Dawn Liang, Class of 2023 Monthly Seminars First- and second-year students will participate in monthly seminar series that will include presentations by a rotating panel of UCI and integrative medicine community specialists on topics covering a range of integrative medicine practices and skills. The seminars are designed to be a blend of both didactic and experiential learning, covering such topics as Acupuncture, Biofeedback, Mindfulness, Tai Chi, Yoga, Osteopathic Manipulation, Chiropractic, Naturopathy, Ayurveda, Hypnosis and Guided Imagery, Wellness and Resiliency. "HEAL-IM has definitely opened my mind up to a lot of different things I’d never known or tried before. I am definitely practicing meditation and yoga more because of HEAL-IM. I also learned so much from the culinary medicine class and have certainly used some of the things I learned in that class to make small changes in my diet and expanded the list of recipes I use regularly." "HEAL-IM has undoubtedly been one of the most important aspects of my medical training thus far. The monthly seminars often touch on modalities of healing that are traditionally overlooked in the allopathic curriculum and I have personally had to deal with my own skepticism and bias while exploring the scientific basis and validity of treatments like biofeedback and traditional Chinese medicine. The engaging, hands-on learning is always fun, but I am most thankful to be able to apply healthy changes to my own life presently and keep a holistic health framework in mind for my clinical interactions.” Dawn Liang, class of 2023 "The seminar on OMT/Chiropractic made me realize that I will need to know my fellow care provider 'team" rather than trying to know everything myself. The experiential session was the highlight! I loved getting to try to techniques hands on with the instructors there to give feedback." "I enjoyed the actual practicing/experience of tai chi with an instructor who walked us through each step and indicated what we should be feeling and trying to achieve." "I loved doing the mini yoga class at the end. It felt like a perfect balance of learning from a powerpoint and actually doing the activity. Practical hands-on activity was great and learning how this can help people from a skeletal perspective and neurological perspective. It was interesting and useful." "I thought TCM and acupuncture were very useful to learn about, and hearing more about the rigor of learning TCM as well as how long it has been effectively used made me more likely to consider it." Slide 1 Slide 2 Slide 3 Slide 4 Slide 5 Slide 6 Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Mindfulness bases stress reduction course is a series of 8 classes customized to teach first and second year medical students the basic elements of mindfulness meditation, and gradually introduce a variety of meditation techniques and practices that students need for stress management for themselves as well as for teaching and guiding their future patients. I took the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course during my first few months in medical school, and it was the perfect counterbalance to the stress and speed of the medical school lifestyle. Our sessions every week gave me a place to rest, recover and reflect on my experience. Over the 8 weeks of the course, I learned how to respond with greater kindness, clarity and wisdom to the challenges I was facing, holding myself in greater compassion as I adjusted to medical school. -First year medical student Culinary Medicine Course Our Culinary Medicine course is a hands-on elective series of five modules that teaches first- and second-year medical students practical, hands-on healthy cooking skills paired with evidence-based whole food nutritional concepts. These skills will be applicable to the students' health as well as to future patients they will see with diet-related illnesses. Learn more about Culinary Medicine Online Educational Modules Throughout the four years of the program, HEAL-IM students also will complete a variety of nationally recognized, interactive, online evidence-based education modules through the University of Arizona Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, covering a broad span and scope of integrative medicine. “The IMDT modules covered aspects of medical and nutritional research that are barely touched in our core curriculum and wove in nicely with the content we covered in our culinary medicine elective and various seminars on complementary medicine. It was also helpful to tie in practical interpersonal skills like motivational interviewing techniques in the modules-- the knowledge we gain is only useful for our patients if we share it with them effectively.” 4th year Integrative Medicine Elective Students in the HEAL-IM program take a fourth-year integrative medicine elective at the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute. This includes clinical rotations at the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute and other integrative medicine clinical sites; completion of additional University of Arizona integrative medicine modules; attendance at a tai chi research lab and a yoga therapy clinic. Additional Integrative Learning Opportunities Learn more about our additional Integrative Learning Opportunities. Additional Opportunities Support Integrative Health Education Learn more about HOW TO GIVE... Give to Integrative Health Education