David Riley, M.D., is the Editor-in-Chief of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, a peer reviewed medical journal indexed in the National Library of Medicine. He is on the clinical faculty at the University of New Mexico and is the founder of the Integrative Medicine Institute which is conducting practice based outcomes research on effectiveness, safety, patient satisfaction, and costs when complementary and alternative therapies are integrated with conventional medicine. He is a co-investigator for a series of multi-center research projects evaluating the medical application of Hatha yoga and meditation for post-polio syndrome, migraines and spinal disorders.

Dr. Riley’s primary interest in clinical medicine is improving patient care through the evidence- based integration of conventional and alternative therapies. He attended Georgetown and the University of Utah Medical Schools and graduated from the University of Utah School of Medicine in 1983. His undergraduate studies were at the University of North Carolina, where he graduated in 1976 with a BA in music and honors in psychology. He is currently a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico Medical School, board certified in Internal Medicine and a certified yoga instructor. In 1993 Dr. Riley completed a three-year training program in homeopathy at the Hahnemann College of Homeopathy in Albany, California and is currently studying biiodynamic osteopathy with Jim Jealous, DO in Fraconia, New Hampshire. He has conducted many research studies in alternative medicine and in particular homeopathy. He was the principle investigator on the International Integrative Primary Care Outcome Study,> a multi-center outcomes study evaluated patient outcomes when homeopathy was integrated in primary care. He has been involved in the development and implementation of data collection networks collecting practitioner and patient outcome and satisfaction data where complementary and alternative medical therapies are integrated into patient care. He conducted a randomized, double-blind, clinical trial on the use of topical zinc ointment for cold sores that was published in 2000.

Southwest Health Options, co-founded by Dr. Riley, was an independent practice association (IPA) managing the delivery of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for insured patients in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As the medical director of Southwest Health Options, Dr. Riley directed the peer review and utilization management, and developed credentialing standards acceptable to both the insurance industry and the CAM community. Information about outcomes from SHO were presented at a Harvard/UCSF research conference in San Francisco in May of 2001. Dr. Riley is a board member of the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States (HPCUS), a technical advisory board to the FDA for regulatory issues concerning homeopathy. Dr. Riley lectures and consults internationally on a range of healthcare issues including education, research, and regulatory affairs.

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