Faculty
Sivarama Prasad Vinjamury, DACM, MPH
Fall 1980 - Fall 2120
Professor II
Eastern Medicine Department
Prasad@scuhs.edu
Current Position
Biography
Dr. S. Prasad Vinjamury graduated from the University of Kerala, India earning a Doctor of Medicine in Ayurveda degree. He then received his Master of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine degree from Southern California University of Health Sciences (SCU) and subsequently Master of Public Health degree from Cal State Fullerton and very recently received his Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine degree from Pacific College of Health and Science.
Dr. Prasad is a Professor at Southern California University of Health and Sciences (SCU) teaching traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda. He also provides acupuncture and Ayurveda medicine services at the University Health Center, Whittier. Dr. Vinjamury has over thirty years in clinical experience in integrating Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, and western diagnostic methods to evaluate, assess, and manage patients. Additionally, he prescribes yoga/tai-chi and breathing practices to his clients. One of his strengths is providing dietary advice, based on Eastern traditional medicine, that is best suited for the patient’s condition. In addition to his teaching and clinical services, he is also deeply involved in clinical research in complementary and integrative medicine (CIM). He has been a Principal Investigator of studies on Fibromyalgia, Hypertension, Insomnia, Cancer and Osteoporosis. He has presented papers on various subjects in several national and international conferences and also published many articles on CIM topics in peer-reviewed journals. He was awarded a Young Investigator Award for his work on Cancer Research in the year 2007 by the Society for Acupuncture Research (SAR). Currently, he is investigating the effects of a Chinese herbal formula on Osteoporosis. Prasad also serves as a peer-reviewer for several integrative medicine journals and is on the Editorial Board on three of these journals. Recently, he served as an expert for developing benchmarks for Ayurveda practice being created by WHO. His work within American Public Health Association as the past chair of Integrative Complementary and Traditional and Health Practices (ICTHP) section, advocates for TCM, Ayurveda and other integrative therapies as health promotion tools through public health policies.
Degrees
DACM, Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, Pacific College of Health and Science, San Diego, California, United States
MPH, Public Health, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, California, United StatesDissertation: Efficacy of Acupuncture for Fibromyalgia - RCT
MD (Ayurveda), Ayurvedic Medicine, University of Kerala, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
Professional Licensures (Healthcare)
LAc, California, United States, AC 9458, Active, 2003, 2023-07-31
Scholarly Contributions and Creative Productions
Chapter
Completed/Published
Conference Proceedings
Completed/Published
Journal Article
Completed/Published
Accepted
Poster Presentation
Completed/Published
Accepted
Grants
Funded - In Progress
Chinese Herbal Medicine (Lagenbone) for Osteoporosis - A Case Series, Funded by SunTen Pharma (October 1, 2019), Funded - In Progress, Fall 2022, PI Sivarama Vinjamury with CoInvestigator LungSheng Hsiao, CoInvestigator Melissa Nagare, Program Coordinator Jennifer Noborkawa, Program Coordinator Jamie Kuljis
Professional Membership
Fall 2005 - Ongoing
American Public Health Association, September 2005
Fall 2010 - Ongoing
Society for Acupuncture Research, September 2010
Fall 2017 - Ongoing
National Ayurvedic Medical Association, August 2017
Fall 2013 - Ongoing
Vedic Education Dissemination Awareness Circle, August 2013
Fall 2022 - Ongoing
Academic Collaborative of Integrative Health (AIHM), September 2018
Interests
Complementary and Integrative Health, Clinical Research, Public Health Research, Policy Work and Non-profit, Acupuncture, Ayurveda, Yoga
Hear from the Students Who’ve Been in Your Shoes
Our Value: Integrative Health, Inclusivity
I chose SCU when looking for a PA program because of their Integrative Medicine approach. I am from Michigan, and not many programs focus on this Integrative, Holistic approach when it comes to patient care in the Midwest, and I felt that was very important for me to learn as a future provider. My transition to semi-virtual learning has been very smooth and quite enjoyable. My favorite part about attending SCU is how tight-knit and diverse the community is. Coming from a large undergrad university and moving so far, it was very important for me to have a PA program that made me feel valued and invested in my success. At SCU, they do a great job of making you feel that.
Brianna Hadley
MSPA Class of 2022
Our Value: Integrative Health
One of the great things about SCU is we do have a campus layout, so all your classes aren't in a single room. We have our cadaver lab. We have different specialty rooms for physical assessment classes vs. acupuncture classes. All our acupuncture-specific classes have all the herbs in the room. You can pull out the herbs and look at them, whether in class or in between classes to get that extra studying in.
My favorite part of SCU is the collaboration from our beginning terms. We were working alongside chiropractor students, PA students, and ayurvedic students. It's a unique community where we get to learn about these different fields and sit in classrooms with them and work with them in the clinic. It allows you to get an understanding of all the different fields and how they can work together, and what is unique about your field. I think that is a wonderful aspect that I didn't think was going to be as prominent as it is here; even now, in my upper term classes and I am not in class with chiropractic students, I can still reach out to them about a certain aspect I may not understand or if I am working on a case. I want another perspective I know I have them to reach out to, so that has been a great networking community to have resources for.
Dr. Jamie Kuljis
Graduate, Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine
Our Value: Integrative Health, Inclusivity
"There are a lot of things that I love about the program at SCU. The first one is that the faculty come from a long line of Ayurvedic knowledge deeply rooted in ancient classical text. They studied Ayurveda, but they also lived it. When you learn from people who embody this wisdom, it's much easier to grasp this knowledge. The second thing I love is the camaraderie within the cohort. The combination of the training, supportive faculty, and the support of my peers and classmates has given me the confidence I need to start my own practice."
Portia Harris
Student, Ayurveda Program
Our Value: Evidence-Based Practice
Some of my favorite courses at SCU have to be the chiropractic procedure classes; those are the classes you get to hone in on your chiro skills, your palpation skills and ultimately work on the adjustments that make you a chiropractor. Those are the classes I feel enhance my knowledge the most and are some of the reasons I chose to become a chiropractor here are SCU.
On top of chiropractic procedures classes, my favorite is the cadaver lab experience. The cadaver classes opened up my perception of what the human body is made up of. It allowed me to get an in-person perspective of how the body works and looks on the inside. I am genuinely thankful for those experiences because they opened and broadened my horizons to the human body and anatomy in general.
Jordan Vega
Student, Doctor of Chiropractic
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