Karen Koffler, MD

Karen Koffler, MD, received her medical degree at the University of Miami and did her training in Internal Medicine in Chicago and the University of Colorado. She began her career as an emergency room physician in a variety of settings including Indian Reservations, the Veteran’s Administration, and inner city hospitals prior to helping to develop the first Hospitalist program for Kaiser Permanente in Denver.

During her experience working in the hospital and ICU, she realized that the “health care system” operated more as a disease management system, and lacked focus on disease prevention. She became increasingly disconcerted with the status quo and often inadequate approach of medications and surgery to treat diseases already in the later stages of development. She began entertaining the value of preventing disease as a more effective strategy. However, there was little the system offered from that perspective.

This questioning led her to being accepted into the first class of physicians trained by Dr. Andrew Weil (the father of Integrative Medicine) at the University of Arizona in 1997. Over the course of 2 years, she expanded her conventional training to include nutrition, herbs, supplements, mind-body therapies, spirituality, Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and other alternative approaches. Upon completion, she was recruited to Northwestern Healthcare in Chicago to design and run an Integrative Medical Center. In 2006, she joined Canyon Ranch to direct their new Health and Wellness Center at Canyon Ranch Miami Beach. She was able to see repeatedly that chronic health issues could be reversed through changes in nutrition, appropriate exercise, supplements, improved quality of sleep, and skills to handle stress.

In 2016, she helped launch Rezilir Health, an Integrative Center focused on improving brain health and the reversal of dementia, located in Hollywood, Florida. In her current position, she leads the development of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Through her work, including clinical, research and education, she hopes to help transform healthcare in the U.S. to include a focus on creating optimal health in addition to treating disease

In her personal life, she is committed to what she teaches: mornings start with a meditation, and an Orange Theory workout. She mostly eats a plant-based diet, always has coffee, and fantasizes about joining Doctors without Borders. She places great emphasis on her relationships including her husband, kids, and friends.