Mimi Guarneri, M.D., FACC

In 1994 I moved from New York City, where I received my medical training at New York University and Cornell Medical Center, to La Jolla, California. I came to La Jolla to work with two world renowned interventional cardiologists, Paul Teirstein M.D. and Richard Schatz M.D., at Scripps Clinic. My goal was to learn how to mechanically open blocked coronary arteries using devices such as angioplasty balloons and stents. In no time, I was placing hundreds of stents per year.

By 1996 my life took a radical turn. While stenting clearly provided a quick mechanical fix to a blocked artery, I realized we were doing very little in healthcare to empower people with the knowledge to prevent disease. I also realized that the human heart is much more complex than just a physical pump, and that true healing goes way beyond cholesterol. Since that time Rauni Prittinen King, R.N. and I created the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine which is dedicated to the prevention, early detection and treatment of disease through the use of global healing traditions. We no longer wait for disease to happen. Diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, cancer, obesity and inflammation are all preventable. We believe that information leads to knowledge and that transformation is obtained by putting this knowledge into practice.