Integrative Medicine Group
About
Integrative Medicine Group (IMG) is a 501(c)3 non profit organization. We aim to 1.) support community by providing integrative medicine care (primary care, pain management, sports medicine care) in Seattle, Washington, and also while providing opportunities for active and student clinicians to expand upon their knowledge and skills. We do this by attending local athletic events to provide complimentary first aid, body work, and health counseling, 2.) host seminars and learning opportunities for students and current practitioners. 3.) conduct, and support research to further assist integrative medicine.
Through focusing 1.) Community, 2.) Education, 3.) Research, we strive to serve integrative medical practitioners, students, and patients.
IMG is affiliated with American Naturopathic Board of Sports Physicians (ANBSP) that governs post graduate level of certification program.
Our Mission
Integrative Medicine Group cares deeply about responsibility, ethics, community, and ambition, as traits upheld by the members and volunteers, and each term acts as a pillar that together, holds our organization at it’s high standard.
Responsibility: We expect all directors, members, and volunteers within Integrative Medicine Group to uphold the highest standards of responsibility. This includes responsibility of oneself, and responsibility of ones patient. Practitioner responsibility would include such things as, but is not limited to, appropriate malpractice insurance, proper business practices like ensuring and recording informed consent, and proper and accurate charting to reflect treatment. Displaying appropriate responsibility of ones’ patient would include, but is not limited to, such things as concussion screening, and having first aid training.
Ethics: In medicine, the barrier between ethical and unethical behavior can sometimes be thin, so we encourage all Integrative Medicine Group members and volunteers to look at any situation objectively, and using their own sound logic, to discern accordingly. Integrative Medicine Group does have a definitive stance on some subjects, that include but are not limited to, 1.) Social Ethics – All members and volunteers within Integrative Medicine Group should give the highest quality of healthcare of their ability to ALL people regardless or race, creed, orientation, ect. 2.) Safety – All members and volunteers within Integrative Medicine Group shall remain mindful and aware of safety of both themselves and their patients, especially in the regards of needles, sharps, and biohazard materials. 3.) – Environmental Ethics – All members and volunteers within the Integrative Medicine Group shall be as environmentally friendly as reasonably possible. This includes never recklessly disposing of waste, recycling as often as possible, and composting as often as possible. All members and volunteers of the Integrative Medicine Group shall maintain an understanding between the direct correlation of the health of one’s environment on one’s individual health, and all actions shall be a reflection of this understanding. 4.) Financial Ethics – All members and volunteers within the Integrative Medicine Group shall maintain integrity in their medical practice and always value the betterment of a human life over money.
Community: Integrative Medicine Group exists to serve the community. This includes our smaller community of medical and alternative medical practitioners, as well as the greater community of Seattle and abroad. All healthcare providers owe the breadth of their knowledge to our ancestors of many providers that lived and died before us, and we know what we now know only because of their efforts and what they left behind. Our purpose also comes from our community, from which we draw our inspiration and purpose. As the non-profit organization, Integrative Medicine Group, we find that it is fitting to commit to serving that which sustains, and inspires us. All members and volunteers within Integrative Medicine Group shall hold reverence for their fellow man, work for the betterment of their community, both big and small.
Ambition: All members and volunteers within the Integrative Medicine Group shall maintain a degree of ambition in their professional and personal lives. Innovation and ambition are the sparks of which great inventions are born, and they should be sought after qualities. All people involved in Integrative Medicine Group should strive to help themselves, their community, and the whole of their profession through their ambition to improve and innovate.
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors are responsible for steering Integrative Medicine Group, towards a sustainable future through adoption of sound, ethical, and legal governance. They make sure the nonprofit has adequate resources to advance its mission and provides continuity of the organization’s point of view. Board members are passionate about supporting our mission statement: To enhance the knowledge and skills of current and future practitioners to benefit the greater community.
Dr. Masahiro Takakura is a Naturopathic Physician, Chiropractor, and a licensed Acupuncturist. He graduated with a Doctorate of Naturopathic Medicine and a Master’s of Acupuncture from Bastyr University, and received his Doctorate degree of Chiropractic Medicine from the National University of Health Science in Lombard, Illinois. He has worked with multiple athletes. His passion is to continue to learn medicine and provide patient centered medicine. He established non profit groups Integrative Medicine Group with goals of community service, provide education, and research and American Naturopathic Board of Sports Physician (ANBSP) to share his knowledge and skills and provide opportunities for our new graduates or those who are interested in sports medicine.
Dr. Masahiro Takakura, ND, PhD, DC, LAc
Founder & President
Dr. Calvin Kwan, ND, DANBSP
Secretary
Dr. Calvin Kwan is a licensed Naturopathic Physician who completed his doctorate degree in Naturopathic Medicine at Bastyr University, and is currently an Adjunct Faculty at Bastyr Center for Natural Health and Bastyr University. With a deep-seated passion for Naturopathic medicine, Dr. Calvin Kwan firmly believes that prevention is the key to health and longevity. Dr. Kwan primarily focuses on the treatment of patients as a whole, but also has interests in weight loss, sports medicine, lymphedema, metabolic, and cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Kwan applies Physical Medicine modalities, diet and lifestyle modification, and exercise to improve the outcome of his patients.
Dr. Jessica Norton, ND, LAc, DANBSP
Treasurer
Dr. Jessica Norton ND, LAc, strives to combine both naturopathic and traditional Chinese medicine treatment principles to best serve her patients. Her goal is to enable patients to be proactive in their care by making educated and informed decisions about their health and wellness. She focuses on creating an individualized treatment for each patient and treating the whole patient.
As a naturopathic physician and licensed acupuncturist. Dr. Jessica has a focus on sports medicine, primary care, and aesthetic medicine. She has additional training in cranioscaral therapy, visceral manipulation, kinesio taping, IV therapy, Chinese herbal medicine, cosmetic acupuncture, yoga therapy, and regenerative injection therapy.
Before earning her Doctorate in Naturopathic medicine and Masters in Acupuncture and Oriental medicine from Bastyr University, Dr. Jessica enjoyed a career in finance and completed her education at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She is accepting cash patients while credentialing with insurance
Board Members
In addition to our board of directors, our board members Dr. Anh Ngoc Le, Dr. Tom Yang, and Dr. Thien Nguyen, make up the voting members of our organization.
Dr. Anh Ngoc Le, ND, LAc, LMP, DANBSP
Board Member
Dr. Ngoc is a strong advocate in combining Traditional Chinese Medicine with Naturopathic medicine through philosophy and practice. She found that these two thoughts of medicine work well hand in hand and allows practitioners to find and treat the cause and the whole person, instead of mainly focusing on the disease. Her interests are in Women’s Health, Children, and Sports Medicine.
Dr. Ngoc is trained in naturopathic medicine, acupuncture, exercise biology, nutrition, craniosacral therapy, visceral manipulation, IV therapy, botanical medicine, homeopathy, massage therapy, chinese herbal prescription, mesotherapy, trigger point injections, hydrotherapy and nature cure.
Being an ESL tutor and translator for the underserved Vietnamese community since she was 10 years old, Dr. Ngoc values the need for prevention in health. This is where education is necessary and a village, support, is needed to make it happen.
Dr. Wu-Hsun (Tom) Yang, ND, LAc, LAc, DANBSP
Board Member
Dr. Tom aspires to promote wellness through patient education and prevention so his patients are equally invested in maximizing their well-being. He fosters a supportive environment for patients to learn about the root causes of their illness and empowers them to make informed choices that treat the whole person, not just symptoms. He believes effective healing happens when there is a therapeutic alliance between the patient and the provider that is built on mutual-respect. His goal is to deliver safe, effective and individualized treatments using a combination of naturopathic modalities and prescription medications when indicated. His clinical interests include digestive health, sleep medicine, men’s health, mood issues, biofeedback, musculoskeletal pain, acupuncture, herbal medicine using both Western and traditional Chinese herbs. He received extra training in craniosacral therapy, kinesiotaping, counseling, NADA 5 needle therapy, and SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) treatment.
Dr. Tom is a licensed Naturopathic Physician, Acupuncturist and Massage Therapist in Washington State. He graduated from Bastyr University with a Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine and a Master of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. Thereafter, he completed one year of CNME accredited residency at Bastyr Center for Natural Health. Prior to his medical education, Dr. Tom worked in a local non-profit organization. His work focused on HIV and STD prevention and education through outreach to the greater Seattle LGBTQ community and homeless youth.
Dr. Thien Nguyen, ND, LAc, DANBSP
Board Member
Dr Thien Nguyen strives to integrate eastern and western philosophies to best treat his patients. He is an advocate to helping his patients with their complaints as well as creating change for prevention of dis-ease. He has noticed that creating change is key to healing in his chronic patients and he has the patience and confidence to help patients pursue that change. The goal is to treat the root cause and the whole person by first doing no harm and teaching through education to prevent disease.
As a sports medicine and primary care physician, Dr. Thien is trained in naturopathic medicine, acupuncture, applied kinesiology, kinesio taping, craniosacral therapy, visceral manipulation, IV therapy, mesotherapy, perineural therapy, regenerative injections, trigger point injections, botanical medicine, chinese medicine herbal prescriptions.
Prior to joining IMG, Dr. Thien was apart of a CA non-profit organization recruiting patients for free cancer screenings and that was where he realized the need to prevention versus waiting for illness and disease to occur before creating intervention. He is fluent in Vietnamese and accepts Vietnamese-speaking patients.