Victor Sierpina, MDProfessor
Family Medicine
John Sealy School of Medicine
Dr. Sierpina is board certified by the American Board of Family Practice and the American Board of Holistic Medicine. He has practiced in a holistic health center, worked with a group specializing in home birth, and was medical director of a group practice and urgent care center in the Chicago area. Fulfilling a life dream, he practiced whole person medicine as "the Country Doc" in a remote town of 63 people in the mountains of Colorado. While there he was the medical director of the Monarch and Wolf Creek ski patrols and local ambulance services before joining the faculty of UTMB. His practice and his personal life have long included the study of tai chi, acupuncture, meditation, Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, nutritional, herbal and mind-body approaches to health and healing.
Dr. Sierpina was Principal Investigator on a $1.6 million National Institutes of Health grant to develop and evidence-based curriculum in alternative therapies. He is a collaborator on several other research projects at UTMB related to spirituality and CAM practices. He also is the recipient of a $1.35 million NIH Exploratory and Development Grant in Mind-Body Medicine to create an expanded research infrastructure in mind-body medicine at UTMB. He is the author of a textbook, Integrative Health Care: Complementary and Alternative Therapies for the Whole Person, and the consulting editor on the newly released 1000 Cures for 200 Common Ailments, as well as numerous peer-reviewed scientific articles and other publications in the field of integrative medicine. He is a reviewer for several medical journals, serves as an associate editor for Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, and is the Chair of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, a group of 39 US and Canadian academic centers with active programs committed to integrative medicine.
In 2007, Dr. Sierpina was inducted into the Academy of Master Teachers.