Industry Spotlight: Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine

Redefining What It Means to Practice Medicine

Across clinics, hospitals, and private practices around the world, healthcare providers are expanding the way they see their patients. Moving beyond symptom management toward something more whole and more human. One institution that has been building this movement for over three decades is the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine (AWCIM) at the University of Arizona.

AWCIM bridges the gap between conventional and healing-oriented medicine through education, research, events, and hands-on clinical work, equipping healthcare professionals with evidence-based, integrative approaches to enhance patient care, optimize well-being, and drive lasting change within their communities.

For practitioners who feel called to do more for their patients, and for themselves, integrative training such as the AWCIM Fellowship may be where that begins.

"I came to the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine after  a period of burnout. During the Fellowship, I gave myself permission to ask the foundational questions again — what's my purpose, why am I here, what am I supposed to be doing. This was transformative for my life and career."

- Lace Co-Founder and CMO, Rocky Crocker, MD. Former Faculty & Director of Strategic Clinical Planning & Implementation at AWCIM.

‍

The Fellowship in Integrative Medicine

A Two-Year Program Built Around Clinical Practice

What sets this Fellowship apart from traditional continuing medical education is that it was designed to work with a clinician's life. The Fellowship in Integrative Medicine is a flexible, two-year, mostly online, 1,000-hour program designed to fit alongside clinical practice, with Fellows typically dedicating around 10 hours per week.

That means a cardiologist in Chicago, a family physician in rural Texas, or an oncologist in London can all pursue this Fellowship without stepping away from the patients who need them. Participants have included pediatricians, OB/GYNs, emergency medicine physicians, ophthalmologists, surgeons, oncologists, cardiologists, otolaryngologists, anesthesiologists, and most other medical specialties, along with nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and PharmDs.

What Practitioners Actually Learn

The Fellowship curriculum is divided into 13 units, typically 6-10 weeks long, created by nationally recognized experts and faculty from various disciplines, modalities, and philosophies. The curriculum covers areas that most conventional medical training touches only briefly, if at all:

• Nutritional Medicine: Evidence-based dietary approaches for general health and specific disease conditions, giving practitioners tools they can apply with patients from day one.
• Botanicals & Dietary Supplements: Clinical indications, how to identify quality products, and guidance on supplement-drug interactions, an area where most conventional training leaves significant gaps.
• Mind-Body Medicine: The science of how emotional, mental, social, and behavioral factors affect health outcomes, including practical methods for incorporating meditation and other mind-body techniques into clinical practice.
• Traditional Whole Systems of Healing: Practical understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, manual medicine, and homeopathy, the healing traditions that patients are already turning to.
• Integrative Clinical Approaches: Evidence-based strategies for hundreds of health conditions spanning all major specialties.

Faculty and Mentorship

The Fellowship draws on over 60 faculty members across multiple disciplines, including researchers, clinicians, and thought leaders in integrative medicine. Dr. Weil himself actively participates in the Fellowship's three experiential weeks, leading teaching sessions and engaging directly with Fellows.

The Clinical Mentorship Program provides specialty-specific group mentoring, guiding Fellows in applying integrative medicine to real-world practice. Through case discussions, expert insights, and peer collaboration, Fellows refine their clinical skills and develop practical integrative strategies for their specific patient populations.

Three In-Person Experiential Weeks

Beyond the online curriculum, the program includes three in-person retreat weeks in Tucson, Arizona. These are intensive, community-driven experiences designed to refine clinical skills, build peer relationships, and give practitioners a chance to experience the healing philosophy they are studying firsthand.

Practitioners who have attended describe these weeks as both professionally and personally meaningful, a combination that's uncommon in continuing medical education.

A Nationally Recognized Credential

The Fellowship is a formal, nationally recognized qualification. Fellows receive training in healing-oriented, evidence-informed integrative medicine that qualifies for board certification through ABOIM (American Board of Integrative Medicine) and is recognized by the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine. Nurse practitioners who complete the Fellowship also meet the educational requirements to sit for the American Holistic Nurses Certification Corporation certification exam.

The Fellowship is one of the most established and widely recognized integrative medicine training programs in the world, and leading academic centers and hospital systems continue to send their physicians and nurse practitioners to the program for advanced education.

A Global Alumni Community

Graduates gain lifelong access to a community of over 5,000 alumni through a dedicated alumni platform, connecting them with faculty, peers, and thought leaders for collaboration, mentorship, and professional growth. Alumni also receive access to updated curriculum, invitations to events and conferences, and ongoing programming.

In a profession that can feel isolating, particularly for practitioners integrating new modalities into conventional settings, having a network of colleagues who share your clinical language matters. The Fellowship has graduated more than 2,000 fellows from all 50 U.S. states and 27 countries, with alumni applying integrative care across 35+ specialties in hospitals, clinics, and private practices worldwide.

The Practitioner Perspective

Practitioners who complete the Fellowship consistently describe a shift that goes beyond clinical skills. Many report reconnecting with the reason they entered medicine in the first place. Rocky Crocker, MD, a Fellowship graduate and Lace Health Co-Founder and CMO, describes seeing greater satisfaction among physicians who take this approach, helping to bring some joy back to practicing medicine.

In a healthcare landscape shaped by burnout, time pressure, and fragmented care, integrative training programs give practitioners a different framework, one that puts the therapeutic relationship, the whole patient, and evidence-based healing back at the center of practice.

Looking Ahead

Healthcare is at an inflection point. Patients are asking for more time, more answers, and more humanity in their care. The practitioners who will lead the next generation of medicine are those who can meet that demand with both scientific rigor and compassion for the whole person.

AWCIM has been preparing those practitioners for over 30 years. For clinicians who are ready to expand their clinical practice and connect with a global community of colleagues, the Fellowship in Integrative Medicine is a place to begin.

To learn more or apply, visit awcim.arizona.edu.

Why This Matters If You're Building a Practice

AWCIM has played a defining role in shaping integrative medicine education and building the global community of practitioners who are advancing this work. The Fellowship's clinical training, credential, and alumni network are significant assets for any practitioner in this space.

For many practitioners, pairing clinical education with separate support for practice design, operations, and growth can be where clinical training meets practice-building. If this is an area you are looking to bridge, we would welcome the conversation at Lace.

Our goal at Lace is to support you in turning your clinical training into a successful, financially thriving practice that pays your bills without compromising your values. Lace supports you through credentialing, building your patient panel, designing Financial Model and Business Plan and welcoming you into a community of like-minded peers.