We hope the brief description on this page helps you understand the services offered and the types of patients we can best help.

Founded in 1993, the mission of the CEWM is to improve the health, well-being, and quality of life of people by blending the best of modern western medicine with Traditional Chinese Medicine to provide healthcare that is safe, effective, affordable, and accessible. The Center has established a model system of comprehensive care with emphasis on health promotion, disease prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation through an integrated practice of East-West medicine. Ours is a patient-centered, problem-solving approach to care. The Center’s model represents a new healthcare paradigm that provides a potential solution to the current healthcare crisis. The Center successfully combines outstanding clinical care, education, research, and international programs that are designed to advance the field of medicine and train the next generation of leaders in integrative medicine.

Our brand of integrative medicine incorporates some traditional Chinese medicine (specifically, its diagnostic approach and therapeutic modalities), a focus on soft tissue dysfunction, a biopsychosocial approach and framework, and strong emphasis on self-help in order to solve clinical problems. Patients are evaluated by board-certified internists/geriatricians/family nurse practitioners with varying levels of background in traditional Chinese medicine. A treatment program comprising some combination of education, medication adjustments as appropriate, lifestyle coaching and diet recommendations, acupuncture, lidocaine trigger point injections, and therapeutic massage is delivered by these dual-trained internists/family nurse practitioners and possibly other acupuncturists who are also part of the treatment team.

We are not an acupuncture clinic, nor are we a massage clinic. For those patients seeking only those specific services, they are best served by other clinicians (probably outside UCLA Health System). The four potentially billable services provided include: 1) office visit; 2) acupuncture; 3) lidocaine trigger point injections; and 4) myofascial release/therapeutic massage. What is covered will vary depending on payor and insurance plan. We obviously communicate this information to the patient at the time of initial consultation, but we thought that you would be interested as well in determining whether it would be appropriate for you to send a particular patient to the clinic. Our clinic manager Carlo Arias can answer other questions with regard to the above.