Associate Professor of Family Medicine
Medical Director, Osteopathic Manual Medicine Service
Bio
Alice Chen, DO, is a board-certified osteopathic neuromusculoskeletal medicine specialist who provides an integrative approach towards treating disease and cultivating health. She provides osteopathic manipulative treatment: a type of hands-on care that treats illness and injury by feeling and gently moving a person's tissues and joints, thereby easing pain and improving function. She considers the whole-person (mind-body-spirit) in the quest for optimal health and wellness.
Dr. Chen cares for for people of all ages with a variety of health conditions. She primarily cares for patients in the hospital setting, helping with pain, anxiety, acute illness, infections, traumatic injuries, and after all forms of surgery (from brain to transplant). She cares for infants and newborns in her clinic, helping alleviate biomechanical breastfeeding issues, torticollis, constipation, body tightness and tension, and plagiocephaly.
As an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine, Dr. Chen teaches medical students, residents, and fellows at UC San Diego School of Medicine. Her research interests include exploring the mechanisms of osteopathic manipulative treatment and its clinical effects in the patients she cares for.
Dr. Chen completed her residency in neuromusculoskeletal medicine and osteopathic manipulative medicine (NMM/OMM) at St. Barnabas Hospital Health System in the Bronx, New York. She earned her osteopathic medical degree from A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona.
When not treating patients, Dr. Chen enjoys spending time with family, painting, and cooking. She energizes herself through spending time in nature, contemplation, and friendship.
Clinical Philosophy
Dr. Chen practices osteopathy from the philosophical perspective that our bodies possess remarkable innate wisdom and capacity for healing. Her role as a physician is not to impose treatment, but to listen—through palpation, through conversation, through careful observation—and to partner with you to achieve your goals in health and wellness.
What to Expect
Come as you are.