Remembering Rachel Naomi Remen MD, Pioneer in Integrative Medicine
Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, a longtime UCSF Family & Community Medicine (FCM) clinical professor who helped bring compassion, meaning and human connection to the forefront of medical education, died Aug. 8, 2026. She was 88.
At UCSF, Dr. Remen created The Healer’s Artexternal site (opens in a new window) in 1991, a course designed to help medical students explore grief, service, meaning and their calling to medicine. The course became a popular UCSF elective and later spread to medical schools around the world.
Dr. Remen drew on her own experiences as a patient to teach that medicine involves not only treating disease but caring for the whole person. She brought that philosophy to a wider audience through her bestselling books Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings, as well as through her work with the Commonweal Cancer Help Program and the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness.
Dr. Remen leaves a lasting legacy at UCSF and across medical education: a reminder that excellent medicine requires scientific knowledge and clinical skill alongside compassion, connection and shared humanity.
Among her many influential students was Dr. Vivek Murthy, 19th and 21st Surgeon General of the United States. In an obituaryexternal site (opens in a new window), Dr. Murthy, said, “Rachel was a force of love and hope,” he said. “Every conversation with her felt like coming home. Rachel changed my life multiple times.”
That impact was felt deeply at UCSF, where Remen’s teaching touched generations of faculty and students.
“Many faculty and students have been impacted and moved by Dr. Remen's lessons and caring; she has left a rich and beautiful legacy,” said UCSF FCM Professor Emeritus Dr. William Shore. “Rachel's memory is a blessing, and we are holding her in our hearts.”
For those who taught alongside her, Dr. Remen’s legacy also lives on in the lessons she shared about what it means to care for others.
“One of my favorite teachings from Rachel captures the heart of what she taught us,” said UCSF FCM Professor Emeritus Dr. Shieva Khayam-Bashi, who also taught the Healer's Art elective. “‘When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole.’”
Learn more about Dr. Remen's legacy from her websiteexternal site (opens in a new window) and upcoming memorial services in her full obituaryexternal site (opens in a new window).