About Richard Petri
Physician. Researcher. Veteran. Leader.
Board-certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, fellowship-trained in Integrative Medicine, and a U.S. Army Veteran — Richard P. Petri, Jr., MD, has spent his career at the intersection of clinical care, research, and policy in service of Veterans and patients.
Biography
The Story Behind the Work
Richard P. Petri, Jr., MD, is a board-certified physician in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, fellowship-trained in Integrative Medicine, U.S. Army Veteran, and PhD Candidate in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at The University of Texas at El Paso. He is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Institute for Integrative Health and Healing (The I2H2).
During his military career, Dr. Petri held leadership roles in chronic pain and integrative medicine and contributed to U.S. Army, Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, and international initiatives addressing pain management, healthcare education, and integrative approaches to care. His leadership included service in U.S. Army Surgeon General pain initiatives, membership on the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command Clinical and Rehabilitative Medicine Research Program Pain Scientific Steering Committee, and chairing a NATO Science and Technology Organization Human Factors and Medicine activity focused on integrative medicine. He also served as the Army Principal Representative for a major DoD–VA initiative to expand acupuncture training across clinical settings.
His scholarly interests include Veteran health, chronic pain and rehabilitation, integrative health, patient-clinician communication, and patient-centered research. His current doctoral research — Veterans' Expression and Perception: Adaptations in Suffering (VEPAS) — explores how Veterans with chronic low back pain communicate experiences of pain and suffering, perceive clinicians' responses to those communications, and experience alignment or misalignment within healthcare encounters.
Through The I2H2, Dr. Petri is building interdisciplinary partnerships that bring together Veterans, patients, clinicians, researchers, academic institutions, and community organizations to advance patient-centered health research, education, and healthcare collaboration.
Philosophy
What Drives the Work
"Medicine is not a collection of facts. It is a practice of judgment — and judgment requires wisdom, humility, and the courage to act in the face of uncertainty."
Patient-Centered Care
Every clinical decision, research question, and policy position must begin and end with the patient — their experience, their values, and their voice in the encounter.
Integrative Evidence
The best care draws on the full spectrum of evidence — from rigorous clinical trials to the lived experience of patients — and holds both with equal intellectual honesty.
Service to Veterans
Veterans deserve care that honors the complexity of their service and suffering. Dr. Petri's research and clinical work are dedicated to closing the gaps they too often face.
Credentials & Affiliations