Dr. Karen Seal is a Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry in Residence at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Based at the San Francisco VA Health Care System (SFVAHCS), she serves as Chief of the Integrative Health Service. In this capacity and as a general internist and integrative medicine physician, she oversees several interdisciplinary clinics including a post-9/11 Integrated Care Clinic for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, the Integrated Pain Team Clinic, and the Integrative Health and Wellness Clinic which serve high-risk, high-needs veterans. As a health services researcher she conducts randomized controlled trials and observational studies targeting problems common in veterans such as chronic pain, opioid dependence and posttraumatic stress disorder and recently completed a trial testing a virtual worlds educational program to train primary care providers in PTSD assessment and management. She also actively mentors trainees, provides support for their research interests and seeks to involve them in one or more of the funded research studies listed below:

1. wHOPE Study (Funded by NIH, PI). This is a multi-site pragmatic trial at 5 VA sites across the U.S. to compare a Whole Health Team approach to Primary Care Group Education and both are compared to Usual Care for veterans with chronic pain enrolled in VA healthcare.
2. VOICE Study: (Funded by PCORI, Co-PI): A pragmatic effectiveness trial across 9 VA sites comparing an integrated pain team approach (modeled after the SFVAHCS Integrated Pain Team Clinic) vs. telephone collaborative management to improve pain and decrease opioid use among veterans.
3. Virtual Worlds Training in PTSD for Primary Care Providers: A pilot RCT (Funded by DoD, PI): This pilot trial compared a novel Virtual Worlds training for primary care providers in PTSD assessment and management vs. a Web-Based Training
4. Development of a Dietary Supplement Survey for Veterans (Funded by NIH, PI).We are engaged in participatory research to develop the first ever comprehensive survey of dietary supplement use among U.S. veterans.
5. Non-funded research involves use of the VA Electronic Health Record to answer relevant and timely questions such as vitamin D deficiency predicting COVID-19-related hospitalization and mortality etc.