• FAQ
• Background
• The Campaign
• Campaign Leadership

In existence for 10 years, the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine has become a premier integrative health resource for the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. The first program of its kind to offer fully developed programs in research, education, and clinical care, the Osher Center is meeting the needs of patients who seek a more healing-oriented approach to healthcare.

Friends of the Osher Center now have an unprecedented opportunity to ensure the continued growth and enrichment of the Center by supporting its $25 million endowment campaign, Integrating Modern Medicine, Technology, and Compassionate Care. The Osher Center respectively requests your thoughtful consideration of a lead gift to this effort. Please see our FAQ for more information.

Background  

The establishment of the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine in 1997 was made possible by a generous gift from the Bernard Osher Foundation and the vision of Dr. Haile Debas, former UCSF School of Medicine Dean.

Dr. Debas believed that as one of the top-ranked biomedical research and teaching institutions in this country, UCSF had a responsibility to take the lead in researching complementary and alternative therapies and educating doctors and other health practitioners so that they could help their patients utilize these techniques safely.

Given that the number of visits to complementary and alternative medicine practitioners in the mid-1990s exceeded the total number of visits to all United States primary care physicians, the Osher Center's creation could not have come at a better time.

The Bernard Osher Foundation and the UCSF School of Medicine provided initial operating funds for developing the program, supporting faculty, and setting up the administrative infrastructure needed to run the Center. The Osher Center's achievements over the last decade have been impressive:

Research
Our research program was given the prestigious Center of Excellence award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2004, and since the Center's creation, our cumulative research funding has increased nearly six-fold, rising from $3.1 million to over $19 million.

Education
Our education program, which teaches medical students, health professionals, and the public about integrative medicine practices, has expanded tremendously over the past 10 years. Founded on just two elective classes, the integrative medicine curriculum now features more than 25 hours of required instruction for all UCSF medical students.

Clinical Care
Our patient care program is also thriving. Since the opening of the clinic five years ago, we have had more than 19,000 patient visits. More than 1,500 of these visits have been subsidized by the Community Care Fund, which provides assistance to patients who would not otherwise be able to afford treatment.

The Campaign

The Integrating Modern Medicine, Technology, and Compassionate Care campaign was conceived to enable the Osher Center to tackle one of the greatest challenges facing the field of medicine: how to best leverage the benefits of technological innovation without forgoing personalized, compassionate care.

Through a gift to the Osher Center endowment campaign, you will make it possible for us to integrate new technologies and traditional healing practices, conduct essential research on integrative medicine, develop new models of care in our clinic, and train the next generation of doctors at UCSF's world-class medical school.

Specifically, the permanent and stable source of funding provided by an endowment will be used to underwrite a number of activities at the Osher Center, including:

Faculty recruitment and retention
Providing critical assistance for promising faculty and staff will allow the Osher Center to attract and retain the most talented and sought-after medical doctors, scientists, researchers, and practitioners.

Innovative pilot studies
Sponsoring cutting-edge research is essential to the development of improved therapies, especially at the early stages when NIH and other funding is not available.

Integrative medicine curriculum development
Ensuring the continued development of the integrative medicine curriculum will facilitate the training of our nation’s top medical, nursing, and pharmacology students.

Participation and collaboration with the Academic Consortium of Integrative Medical Schools
Working with our colleagues in the field, we will create a national database of patient outcomes which will be useful for medical education, identifying effective treatments, and influencing policy changes.

Patient support and website expansion
By revamping our website, we will be able to offer more opportunities for distance learning and telemedicine among our patients, as well as research collaboration among our practitioners.

Clinic expansion, to include integrative pediatrics and parenting and nutrition classes
By enlarging our clinic offerings, we will be able to serve a larger segment of the population.

Endowment Campaign Leadership

We are delighted that Alexsis de Raadt St James has agreed to chair the Osher Center's Endowment initiative. Alexsis has a rich background in technology and international business development and is a former Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alexsis is the founder of The Althea Foundation, which takes on difficult and neglected mental-health issues that are life defining in an effort to lessen the trauma and increase resilience and recovery.

A note from Alexsis de Raadt St James...
Recently, I joined the UCSF Osher Center’s Leadership Board-- a group of volunteers dedicated to the health and well being of our community. As I have discovered both in my role on the board and in my experience as a patient, the Center is truly unique in its ability to offer cutting edge medicine that UCSF is known for with great attention to caring for the whole person—body, mind and spirit.

It is because of Bernard Osher's visionary support of a center that would house programs in education, research and patient care in integrative medicine that the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine was founded 10 years ago. Because of that early support, and the on-going support the Center receives from all of you-- we have been able to grow an exemplary integrative health care program that is now nationally recognized as a leader in this new, exciting field of care.

This 10th anniversary year is truly a celebration of the prescience of Bernard Osher’s vision and our shared vision of a Center of health and wellness. This investment in the future of medicine and health is reaping great returns for all of us and will continue to for many years to come.

Again, we are all grateful to you for your generosity….and hope you will continue to join with us as we celebrate this exciting time when health care returns to its roots of healing and service for the whole person.

To your health!

Alexsis de Raadt St. James
Chairman, UCSF Osher Center Endowment Campaign

On behalf of the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, thank you for considering this request to become our partner in shaping the integrative medicine agenda, discovering new healing solutions, and making a difference in the quality of people’s lives.