"I was born and raised on the island of Guam, a US territory in the South Pacific, affectionately known as the place where ‘America’s Day Begins’ and ‘America’s Gateway to Asia.’ Growing up in a culturally diverse environment where “East meets West” is quite literal, I developed an early appreciation for complementary medicine and the value of a full complement of treatment modalities. My mother was a nurse, introducing me to medicine as a profession and ultimately leading me to become a physician.
Attending the University of Washington, I earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology as well as a second Bachelors in Biochemistry, with departmental distinction for my neuroscience research. My undergraduate honors included the National Dean’s List throughout my college years and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Academic Honor Society. I graduated from University of Rochester School of Medicine in 1999 and then completed an internship and residency at Baylor College of Medicine, in the world-renowned Texas Medical Center. I am dual board certified in both Internal Medicine and Obesity Medicine/Weight Management, with over 20 years of experience in clinical medicine.
Following my residency in Internal Medicine, I practiced Hospital Medicine in Seattle and in Austin at Seton Medical Center. While taking care of patients when they are most ill, I’ve seen a tremendous need for a more comprehensive approach to patient care. Better preventative care could have reduced the need for many of the hospitalizations I attended. Our current healthcare delivery system operates in a reactive manner—taking care of illness after it develops, and often managing symptoms and not getting to the root cause of one’s illness. Doesn’t it make more sense to have proactive healthcare and prevent or delay the onset of illness? And in some cases even reverse medical disease before it becomes chronic and irreversible."
