Applications for a July 1, 2026 start date are open

The application deadline is December 1, 2025. Applicants are encouraged to apply promptly, as interviews will be offered on a first come, first served basis. Please email Christina Swords with any questions.

Fellowship Aim Statement

Established in 2003, the overarching goal of the UW Academic Integrative Health Fellowship (UWAIHF) Program is to nurture clinicians who are knowledgeable, compassionate practitioners of the bio-psycho-social-spiritual medicine that affects the health and wellness of individuals, health systems and communities.

They refine skills to provide a culturally responsive space for patients’ values, desires, and health goals to arise and be centered in patients’ care.

Fellows learn from academic, experiential and community perspectives about a range and depth of modalities including lifestyle approaches, botanicals/supplements, mind-body medicine, whole medicine systems, and the Whole Health approach to care, consistent with the requirements of the American Board of Integrative Medicine®. Through this learning, fellows may serve as active partners with their community and other healing professions with an awareness of and respect for the culture and traditions from which these practices originate.

View a slideshow of the 2025 International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health in Seattle, WA.

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View a slideshow of some of our fellowship retreats!

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View a slideshow of some of our hands-on educational seminars!

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This program also strongly emphasizes the incorporation of self-care. We acknowledge the systemic causes of burnout in healthcare professions while exploring how to support clinicians’ senses of meaning, purpose, and resilience in their personal and professional lives.

In this fellowship we create intentional space to discuss and practice shared values related to social justice, as developed by the UW Department of Family Medicine and Community Health Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. We explore how an integrative approach to health care anchored in these values may contribute to the disruption of systemic and structural inequities that affect the health of the people and communities we serve.

2023 Integrative Health fellows and faculty participate in the annual retreat.

Qualifications

  • Applicants must hold an MD or DO degree
  • Applicants must have completed residency in family medicine or medicine/pediatrics with adequate primary care experience
  • Applicants may apply while completing their final year of residency
  • Applicants must be a United States citizen, a lawful permanent US resident with a resident alien permit or green card, or hold a J-1 or H-1B visa. The Integrative Health fellowship does not sponsor J-1 visas, but we can sponsor an H-1B.
  • The UW School of Medicine and Public Health has a deep and profound commitment to diversity both as an end in itself and as a valuable means for eliminating health disparities. As such, we strongly encourage applications from candidates who foster and promote the values of diversity and inclusion. Please review the DFMCH Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion webpage for more details.

The UWAIHF Program is an American Board of Integrative Medicine (ABOIM) approved fellowship program in integrative health. Completion of a fellowship with the UWAIHF satisfies one of the eligibility criteria required by ABOIM to sit for the integrative medicine board certification exam offered by the American Board of Physician Specialties (ABPS). For more information on board certification in integrative medicine, see the ABPS ABOIM webpage.

The UWAIHF Program provides 2 separate, but overlapping learning tracks that share the common goal stated above and prepare the learner to sit for the integrative medicine board certification exam.

Overview:

The Clinical Track is an approximately 1,400 hour, one-year program with the overall mission to develop expertise in incorporating Integrative Health as an overall approach to primary care and consultative practice. The Clinical Track provides the opportunity to develop a specific Integrative Health skillset or approach to care in which the fellow can become independently competent within the one-year period.

Overview:

The Faculty/Leadership Track is a two-year program that is approximately 2,800 hours. The FLT mission is to create physician leaders in the field of Integrative Health. Fellows in the FLT develop expertise in incorporating Integrative Health as an overall approach to primary care and consultative practice with the additional expectations of deepening the mastery of a specific skillset or approach to integrative care, and pursuing academic and leadership in the field of Integrative Health. This track is appropriate for those seeking to teach and/or lead, serve as faculty in an academic institution, or establish an Integrative Health clinic.

In addition to the various responsibilities outlined under the academic fellowship description, AIH fellows participate in the following:

  • Clinic time.
  • Call schedule and precepting. Fellows in a 2 year Faculty Leadership Track are required to precept in one of the residency clinics for 1 half day per week and choose to be on the medicine/pediatrics call schedule or the obstetrics call schedule. They are also required to attend on the UW Family Medicine service 4 weeks per year. Fellows in the 1 year Clinical Track are not required to precept, be on call, or attend in the hospital.
  • Seminars. Seminars take place 1-2 times per month with an IH practioner in the community.
  • Faculty supervision. All fellows will meet once weekly with the AIH Fellowship director to review curriculum and patient cases. They are also paired with an IH faculty 4 times per year in the Integrative Health Consult Clinic to be provided real time feedback and support.
  • Grands Rounds. IH Grand Rounds occurs once monthly. All fellows are required to attend Grand Rounds as well as a monthly post-grand rounds gathering/debrief. All fellows are expected to present at Grand Rounds at least 1 time during their fellowship.

The intention of microskill sessions is to introduce bite-sized skills that are relatively easily incorporated into fellows’ clinical practice.

Typically, these three-hour sessions include both a didactic and hands-on component. We use the didactic time to assess people’s relationship with the topic, provide a historical and cultural context for the practice, and discuss the logistics of practicing the skill plus billing and coding. We’ve also spent a significant amount of time with language: How do I introduce this practice to my patient and/or colleague in a way that honors the tradition it comes from?

Microskill sessions include:

  • Battlefield Acupuncture (BFA)
  • Cupping
  • Gua sha
  • Marma
  • Mind Body Therapies

Seminars are a combination of didactic and hands-on learning experiences.

  • Weekly on the second, third, and fourth Thursday afternoons of the month
    • Faculty and staff practioners at UW and UW Health
    • IH community practioners in Madison and the surrounding areas
  • DFMCH Medical Educators Base Camp Series (for all incoming DFMCH fellows)
    • Adult Learning Fundamentals
    • Improving Assessment Through Direct Observation and Feedback
    • Foundations for Educational Scholarship
    • Faculty Development Essentials

Fellows are paid as PGY-4 and PGY-5 residents for their two consecutive years. Benefits are included and there is an ample budget for CME. For more information on the benefits provided to fellows by the Integrative Health Fellowship, please visit the UW Human Resources website.

Fellows retreat group photo.

2023 Integrative Health fellows and faculty participate in the annual retreat.

View a slideshow of our fellowship graduation ceremony!

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Contact Us

Minichiello_Vincent_MD

Co-Director
Vincent Minichiello, MD

Ravi Hirekatur, MD

Co-Director
Ravi Hirekatur, MD

Christina Swords

Fellowship Coordinator
Christina Swords

How to Apply

Fill out the Integrative Health Application Form.

Program Overview

Learn more about our UW Integrative Health Program.

For patient info see Integrative Health and Wellness Services.

Teaching Modules & Patient Handouts

Clinician and Patient Education Handouts