Integrative health is an approach to care that puts the patient at the center and addresses the full range of physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual and environmental influences that affect a person’s health. Employing a personalized strategy that considers the patient’s unique conditions, needs and circumstances, integrative health uses the most appropriate interventions from an array of scientific disciplines to heal illness and disease and help people regain and maintain optimum health and wellness. Students choosing this focus may work with UCI faculty (Nursing Science and others) on stress and coping, women’s health, complementary alternative medicine, obesity prevention and nutrition, to name a few specific areas.
Faculty Experts in This Area
Dawn Bounds
PhD, PMHNP-BC, FAAN, Associate Professor
Marginalized Youth, Adolescence, Risk, Resilience, Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Social Media, Mental Health, Integrative Health, Wearable And Biofeedback Technology
Recent Studies/Projects
The THRIVE Study
Project REVIVE
Websites
The THRIVE Study
Project REVIVE
Michelle A. Fortier
PhD, Professor
Pediatric Pain, Pediatric Oncology, Healthcare Disparities, mHealth
Recent Studies/Projects
Pain Buddy Treating Pain in Children with Cancer: A 21st Century Innovative Approach – This multi-site randomized controlled trial is aimed to examine the effectiveness of Pain Buddy, a mobile health (mHealth) application designed to improve pain and symptom management in children undergoing treatment for cancer. Pain Buddy allows for real time reporting and management of pain and symptoms as well as training in evidence-based pain management strategies. The long-term goal of Pain Buddy is to improve the quality of life for children facing a cancer diagnosis.
Children Impacted by Cancer in the Latinx Community – The purpose of this study is to conduct community based participatory research (CBPR) with Spanish-speaking families with a child with cancer in order to develop a culturally grounded palliative care model for Latinx families.
Intervention Development and Evaluation to Reduce Disparities in Quality of Life for Latinx Families Impacted by Cancer – The purpose of this study is to develop and validate an innovative culturally grounded intervention to improve quality of life and well-being for Spanish-speaking families impacted by childhood cancer. This intervention, Corazones, includes a focus on health literacy, culturally responsive care, and family well-being and incorporates complementary and alternative medicine (acupressure, massage), culinary medicine, and gardening to improve quality of life during cancer treatment.
Palliative Care in Oncology – The purpose of this study is to understand general palliative care knowledge, beliefs, use, and needs among children and families in the oncology setting. We are also interested in learning about symptoms experienced by children and family beliefs about medication and complementary and alternative approaches to pain and symptom management.
Transition of Care: Assessing for Readiness – About half of young adults do not transition to adult providers to receive follow-up care during cancer survivorship. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to better understand the experiences of adolescent cancer survivors as they prepare to transition from pediatric oncology care to adult care and to identify and address gaps that may improve the transition process.
Websites
Center on Stress and Health
Yuqing Guo
PhD, RN, FAAN, Associate Professor
Reduction of Maternal And Child Health Disparities, Mind-Body Intervention, Technology-Based Intervention, Health Promotion, Infant Mental Health, Family Dynamics, Community-Based Participatory Research, Mixed Methods
Recent Studies/Projects>
SHERO: A Tech-Enabled Community Based Perinatal Initiative to Advance Equity in New Orleans, LA
The Black PEARL (Promoting Equity Anti-Racism and Love) Model: Systemic Integration of Community Maternal Support Services to Achieve Birthing Justice, Equity, and Joy for BIPOC Families
UCLA-UCI Center for Eliminating Cardio-Metabolic Disparities in Multi-Ethnic Populations (UC END-DISPARITIES) – Investigator Development Core
SCH: Individualized learning and prediction for heterogeneous multimodal data from wearable devices
Irvine Summer Institute for Biostatistics and Undergraduate Data Science
Websites
Mark Lazenby
PhD, APRN, FAAN, Dean and Professor
Psycho-Oncology, particularly Spiritual Well-Being; End-Of-Life Care; Health Care Ethics; and Thinking About Nursing’s Contribution to A Good Society
Recent Studies/Projects
NURSE-OC: University of California, Irvine Nursing Workforce Pipeline through Externships and Residencies in Orange County (OC)
Websites
Jung-Ah Lee
PhD, RN, FGSA, FAAN Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Professor and PhD Program Director
Adults/Older Adults and Caregivers, Health Equity/Disparity, Health Technology, Self-Management, Integrative Health, Transition Care, Venous Thromboembolism, Patient Safety, Clinical and Systems Outcomes, Cost-Effectiveness in Healthcare, Mixed Methods
Recent Studies/Projects
UCI Dementia Family Caregiver Study
Adey Nyamathi
PhD, ANP, FAAN, Distinguished Professor, Founding Dean Emerita
HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, Vulnerable Populations Including Previously Incarcerated, Homeless, Rural Women of India and Gay/Bisexual Youth
Recent Studies/Projects
2023-2025 Establishing the Foundations of Emotional Intelligence of Care Companion Robots to Mitigate Agitation among High Risk Dementia Patients via Empathic Patient-Robot Interface, Principal Investigator: A. Nyamathi, ANP, PhD., FAAN; Dutt, N., Ph.D, A, Rahmani, PhD., et al. . UC Noyce Award, $300,000
2023-2028 Secondary Cervical Cancer Prevention of Vulnerable Women with HPV and HIV Co-Infections in India, Principal Investigator: A. Nyamathi, ANP, PhD., V. Satyanarayana, PhD., C. Carpenter, C., PhD. Et al. . R01CA285063. $2,868,674
Websites
Nancy Pike
PhD, RN, FNP-BC, CPNP-AC/PC, FAHA, FAAN, Founding Associate Dean for Research and Professor
Pediatric to young adults with congenital or acquired heart disease, Cardiometabolic disease, Cognitive impairment, Computer-based cognitive retraining, Mental health and wearable technology, and the Impact of social determinants of health on cognitive outcomes.
Recent Studies/Projects
Brain Metabolites, Brain Antioxidant, and Cerebral Blood Flow Deficits in Single Ventricle Heart Disease
Thiamine Intervention and Cognition in Older Adults Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting – A Randomized Clinical Trial
Websites
Amir Rahmani
PhD, Professor
AI/ML in Healthcare, Wearable Computing, mHealth, Health Informatics
Recent Studies/Projects
ZotCare: A Flexible and Personalizable SaaS-based Digital Health Platform-From Human Studdy Trials to Care Delivery
Safeguarding Privacy of Cardiovascular Waveforms through Reinforcement Learning- Guided Generative Models
An LLM-based interactive and Personalized Coaching for Chronic Health Management
Websites
