Health by your design.
Integrative healthcare that puts you in the driver’s seat.
Health by your design.
Integrative healthcare that puts you in the driver’s seat.
WELCOME TO THIRD OPINION MD
Barbara de la Torre, MD
With over 20 years of experience in traditional medicine, I witnessed a system that takes a passive-aggressive approach to patient healthcare, resorting to “checkbox medicine” that favors metrics for large populations over the needs of individuals, and a preference for profits over people. Third Opinion MD started as a way to spark a wave of change in the way we practice medicine, how we care for ourselves, how physicians are treated, and how we can navigate through the existing healthcare system.
As a second-generation integrative physician with knowledge of a more holistic model of care, I’ve come to love two types of medicine: traditional Western and Chinese medicine. My approach to treating illness is individualized and adapted to the needs of the moment. My role is to serve as your bridge between the two perspectives (Eastern and Western), in order to provide you with the best, most personalized care.
WELCOME TO THIRD OPINION MD
Barbara de la Torre, MD
With over 20 years of experience in traditional medicine, I witnessed a system that takes a passive-aggressive approach to patient healthcare, resorting to “checkbox medicine” that favors metrics for large populations over the needs of individuals, and a preference for profits over people. Third Opinion MD started as a way to spark a wave of change in the way we practice medicine, how we care for ourselves, how physicians are treated, and how we can navigate through the existing healthcare system.
As a second-generation integrative physician with knowledge of a more holistic model of care, I’ve come to love two types of medicine: traditional Western and Chinese medicine. My approach to treating illness is individualized and adapted to the needs of the moment. My role is to serve as your bridge between the two perspectives (Eastern and Western), in order to provide you with the best, most personalized care.
My Background
Second-generation physician, visual artist, and immigrant.
Born in Buenos Aires to a German mother and Argentine father with direct Spanish roots, every de la Torre generation for more than 100 years moved to another country like a wandering tribe searching for the opportunity of a better life and to escape suffering from the homeland they left behind. I was a toddler when my mother and father moved to the United States for postgraduate opportunities.
Raised in North Carolina and Texas, I grew up in a home with four languages spoken and a blend of many cultures. I’ve had a foot in both worlds of Eastern and Western medicine since I could remember. My mother was a physician in family medicine, but she was also a trailblazer forging a new path into Chinese medicine, including becoming the first woman president of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture.
I’ve lived in duality all my life as an artist and as a scientist. I studied visual arts in college and worked as a professional artist for a period of time before I found my calling to be a doctor. I grew up as an immigrant and as an American.
As a board-certified Family Medicine practitioner and Medical Acupuncturist, I spent most of my career in corporate medicine, with the exception of running a private practice on an entirely integrated model.
That practice became the seed that would blossom into Third Opinion MD over the next decade.
In 2021, I completed master-level training in medical qigong with a Taoist and Medical Qigong school while balancing traditional clinical work. Taoist and Chinese medical philosophies provided a way to recognize patterns in patients that are often missed by the Western medical lens. These patterns make sense out of what seem to be random symptoms or health problems. Once we understand the pattern, we are better equipped to change it.
And then came the tipping point…
The pandemic was a window into the complex reality of the healthcare system. It revealed the flaws that were already present and the people who were struggling with health conditions before COVID. The devastation, the loss of lives, and the burnout can be the opportunity to change the way we practice medicine and the way we approach health individually.
I left corporate medicine to focus on teaching people to be their own best doctors.
The industrialization of medicine also creates casualties not only for the patients but also for the healers who serve them. I hope to be a source of support to other physicians helping them become more independent and wiser as they, too, navigate through the healthcare system.
Institutions can change the way they train doctors, but our legacy as practitioners of medicine is how we train people to doctor themselves.
True healing comes from real listening. Third Opinion MD takes the doctor out of the equation and places you in the driver’s seat. We provide education and an objective lens to look at all the players in the field (hospitals and healthcare organizations, insurance companies, pharma, healthcare workers, cultural norms and expectations) in order to guide you toward optimal health and fulfillment.
This is the Third Opinion MD’s evolution, mission, and promise.
In 2021, I completed master-level training in medical qigong with a Taoist and Medical Qigong school while balancing traditional clinical work. Taoist and Chinese medical philosophies provided a way to recognize patterns in patients that are often missed by the Western medical lens. These patterns make sense out of what seem to be random symptoms or health problems. Once we understand the pattern, we are better equipped to change it.
And then came the tipping point…
The pandemic was a window into the complex reality of the healthcare system. It revealed the flaws that were already present and the people who were struggling with health conditions before COVID. The devastation, the loss of lives, and the burnout can be the opportunity to change the way we practice medicine and the way we approach health individually.
I left corporate medicine to focus on teaching people to be their own best doctors.
The industrialization of medicine also creates casualties not only for the patients but also for the healers who serve them. I hope to be a source of support to other physicians helping them become more independent and wiser as they, too, navigate through the healthcare system.
Institutions can change the way they train doctors, but our legacy as practitioners of
medicine is how we train people to doctor themselves.
True healing comes from real listening. Third Opinion MD takes the doctor out of the equation and places you in the driver’s seat. We provide education and an objective lens to look at all the players in the field (hospitals and healthcare organizations, insurance companies, pharma, healthcare workers, cultural norms and expectations) in order to guide you toward optimal health and fulfillment.
This is the Third Opinion MD’s evolution, mission, and promise.
Certifications and Credentials
Board Certified in Family Medicine with over 20 years of combined medical education and experience.
Three years of additional training in psychiatry, six years of experience in primary care, and 10 years of experience as an urgent care physician dealing with chronic, urgent, and emergent situations.
Board-certified in Medical Acupuncture
Fellow of the American Academy of Medical
Acupuncture and contributing faculty.
Master Level certification in medical qigong.
A health evolution in one person leads to a health revolution for the world.
Individual health is not sustainable without an inherent understanding that we are inseparable from our environment. Third Opinion MD’s mission is to lead us into the future of mainstream medicine: lifestyle medicine with you in mind.
As an experienced physician, artist, writer, and educator, I believe doctors should be leaders for the lifestyle medicine of the future. I lecture on a new creative approach to healthcare through the integration of key principles from Chinese medicine.
Podcast
Your inner doctor is calling.
Are you listening?
Tap into knowledge you already possess about your health by adapting ancient wisdom to modern living. Liberate your perspective of health, recognize what your body tells you, and know what to do. It’s time for a healthcare evolution in each of us.
“ I want to give you the first perspective when I met [Dr. de la Torre]: compassionate, empathetic, vulnerable…You have a certain vulnerability about you that allows people to feel that they can tell you things.”
