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2025 Donald I. Abrams, MD, Lecture in Integrative Oncology   
“From Reduction to Relationship: Evolving Paradigms in Medicine”  
Tieraona Low Dog, MD   

Wednesday, November 12, 12:00 - 1:00 PM
Herbst Hall Auditorium (2nd Floor), 1600 Divisadero St  
Livestream available (Zoom link) 

Modern biomedicine has gifted us with powerful tools to diagnose and treat disease and has saved countless lives.  Yet many patients—and clinicians—sense that something essential has been lost. Traditional healing systems evolved within different paradigms that optimized not only addressing disease but also restoring balance, vitality, and quality of life within the natural cycles of human life.   

Dr. Low Dog's lecture invites us to look closely at the assumptions that shape what we call “scientific validity” and to ask whether controlled trials and statistical endpoints capture the full experience of healing. We will explore how different ways of knowing—empirical, traditional, and relational—can complement one another, creating a richer and more human practice of medicine. Through stories, evidence, and reflection, we will consider how to cultivate fluency across paradigms and how embracing relationship—as much as reduction—can bring medicine closer to its true purpose: the alleviation of suffering and the restoration of wholeness.  

Learning Objectives   

• Describe the epistemological foundations of Western biomedicine and traditional healing systems, highlighting how each defines validity, evidence, and health outcomes.   

• Compare the goals of biomedical care (disease elimination, biomarker normalization) with those of traditional systems (balance, vitality, coherence, and meaning).   

• Reflect on how integrative medicine can bridge paradigms by incorporating both measurable endpoints and experiential outcomes such as well-being, resilience, and connection.  

Tieraona Low Dog, MD, is a founding member of the American Board of Integrative Medicine and the Academy of Women’s Health. She served as director for the first interprofessional fellowship in integrative health and medicine after leading the fellowship program founded by Andrew Weil at the University of Arizona. Dr. Low Dog was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy and served as the Chair of the Dietary Supplements and Botanicals Admission Evaluation Sub-Committee from 2010-2020. 

CME Credit: 

The University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine (UCSF) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. UCSF designates this live activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. 

Planner Disclosures: 
The planners Shelley Adler, PhD, Selena Chan, DO, and Patty Moran, PhD, have no relationships to disclose. 

Speaker Disclosures: Tieraona Low Dog, MD, has disclosed the following financial relationships: she serves as an advisor for NOW Foods and Fullscript.