Dr. Lixing Lao is a professor and the President of Virginia University of Integrative Medicine (VUIM). He has been appointed since October, 2019. He also serves as the Director of the Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (DAOM) program. At VUIM, Dr. Lao teaches Acupuncture, Tuina (Chinese massage), Clinical Training, Research (evidence-based medicine) and advanced acupuncture courses in DAOM program. He also serves a mentor for capstone projects for the DAOM students here. 

Dr. Lao graduated from the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SUTCM) in 1983, and completed his Ph.D in Physiology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) in 1992. Prior to VUIM, Dr. Lao taught Family Medicine at the Center for Integrative Medicine of the University of Maryland School of Medicine between 1992 and 2013. In 2013, he became the Director of the School of Chinese Medicine at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). In 2014, Dr. Lao was appointed to hold the Endowed Professorship in Integrative Medicine there, and taught until 2019. Currently, Dr. Lao is an elected vice president of the World Federation of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Societies (WFAS), and immediate past Secretary General of the Consortium for Globalization of Chinese Medicine (CGCM). 

As a licensed acupuncturist, educator and researcher, and having practiced for over 30 years, Dr. Lao is a well-known researcher in the acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine field. He was the principal investigator and co-investigator of over 20 clinical trials and pre-clinical studies in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines, which were funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense (DoD), USA and Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF), Hong Kong. He has actively published about 300 journal articles and 20 book chapters. Widely recognized for his unique contributions to acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine research and research methodology, he has been invited to give over 300 presentations at local, national and international conferences.

Dr. Lao served as a Board member on the Maryland State Board of Acupuncture for five years. In 2009, he was the Editor in Chief at the American Acupuncturist, American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AAAOM). In 2010, he started his position as the Editor of the Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (ECAM), where he stayed until 2020. As of right now, Dr. Lao is the Editor in Chief for the Journal of Integrative Medicine. He is also a board member of the Society for Acupuncture Research (SAR) after serving as the co-president for five years since 2003. 

Dr. Lao was awarded for outstanding service to the acupuncture and Oriental medicine profession in the field of research and to the community at-large by the AOM Alliance in 2004. He was also awarded a Qi-Huang International Award by the China Association of Chinese Medicine in 2015, and a Chief Executive’s Commendation for his serve in Chinese medicine development in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong government in 2019. 

For more information of his extensive achievements, please visit here.