What does it really mean to practice "whole health" — and how do we keep it from becoming just another buzzword?
In this live episode from the Institute for Functional Medicine Annual Conference, James Maskell sits down with Dr. Tracy Gaudet to unpack the evolution of whole health, the growing risk of paradigm "veneers" masking real transformation, and why the patient-practitioner relationship remains central to any lasting healing.
Tracy explains how true system change begins with a different kind of conversation — one that starts with a person's purpose and meaning rather than their diagnosis — and why that shift produced measurable clinical improvements in her work with the VA. She and James also discuss the rising infighting among healthcare "tribes" (functional, integrative, lifestyle medicine) and the opportunity to synergize instead of stake out territory from a place of fear and scarcity.
The conversation turns to promising green shoots of change: land-grant universities like Virginia Tech stepping into community health leadership, and the first-of-its-kind Doctorate in Whole Health Leadership at Southern California University of Health Sciences (SCU), which Tracy helped design and James is now personally joining.
Whether you're a clinician, health system leader, or an aspiring agent of change, this episode offers a grounded, honest look at what it will really take to humanize modern medicine.
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About the Guest:
Dr. Tracy Gaudet is a physician and national leader in whole health transformation, best known for spearheading the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Whole Health System — one of the largest whole-person healthcare transformation efforts in the country. She helped design and now teaches in the first Doctorate in Whole Health Leadership program at Southern California University of Health Sciences (SCU), training clinicians, administrators, and educators to lead system-wide transformation toward humanized, whole-person care. Tracy's work centers on shifting healthcare conversations from disease and diagnosis to purpose and meaning as the true foundation of lasting behavior change.
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