General Info

Seema Rao, MD, is a board-certified physician who specializes in senior health. She is an attending physician who also sees patients in skilled nursing facilities as part of UC San Diego Health's post-acute care program. As an associate professor in the Department of Medicine, Dr. Rao trains medical students, residents and fellows at UC San Diego School of Medicine. Her research interest includes integrative medicine approaches to common geriatric syndromes, which has led to several journal publications and presentations at medical conferences.Prior to joining UC San Diego Health, she was in private practice in internal medicine and integrative medicine and served as attending physician for several nursing homes and medical centers in New Jersey. Dr. Rao completed a fellowship in geriatric and integrative medicine at George Washington University and VA Hospital in Washington, DC, and a residency in internal medicine at Brookdale University Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. She also did a residency in medicine and clinical pharmacology and earned her medical degree from the University of Bombay (now University of Mumbai) in Bombay, India. Dr. Rao is board-certified in internal medicine and in integrative medicine. In addition, Dr, Rao has trained extensively in integrative medicine. She completed acupuncture training at Harvard Medical School and a three-year structural homeopathy physician program at American College of Homeopathy in Arizona. She received an MD(H) from Arizona State Board of Homeopathic and Integrated Medicine Examiners. Dr. Rao trained at the Institute of Classical 5 Element Acupuncture in Santa Monica, Calif., and learned Korean hand acupuncture at the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture in Portland, Ore., and functional medicine at the Institute of Functional Medicine (IFM) in Phoenix, Ariz. Dr. Rao was trained in osteopathic manipulation techniques at The University of New England in Maine. She is a member of American Geriatrics Society.UC San Diego Health LinksFor more information, see https://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/Pages/skilled-nursing.aspx.