Roy Elam, MD is the medical director for the Vanderbilt Center for Integrative Health. He is involved in integrative health research, medical education and clinical activities. At the center, he provides integrative health consultations during which he helps patients develop personalized plans for self care and wellness. Dr. Elam specializes in working with patients who are living with chronic pain, who are seeking information about complementary therapies or who want to improve their health by making lifestyle changes. Dr. Elam is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at Vanderbilt where he actively practices. He teaches the Healing Art curriculum and Palliative Care at Vanderbilt Medical School. He was a recent chair of the Mayor's Healthy Nashville 2010 Leadership Council. He is a member of the Baptist Healing Trust Board and is the current chair of the Alive Hospice Board. Dr. Elam has been involved in mind-body medicine in the Nashville community for the past 10 years and was co-founder with Gordon Peerman of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course in 1996. He has studied mind-body medicine with Dr. Rachel Remen, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and Dr. James Gordon. He has studied contemplation with Thomas Keating and Thomas R. Ward.