About Tricia O’Brien, MD

Dr. O’Brien was born and raised in rural Massachusetts. She relocated to Texas after high school and worked full-time to put herself through a Bachelor’s of Science degree, graduating magna cum laude from the prestigious University of Dallas. She then attended Baylor College of Medicine and graduated in 2006. She attended both General Surgery and Family Medicine residencies at University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, Texas training at Parkland Hospital, Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, and University Hospitals.

During her education and residency, both of Dr O’Brien’s parents were diagnosed with rare forms of cancer. Her experience as a caretaker offered insight into the healthcare system from a point of view that she may not have otherwise gained. Traveling with each parent to the best facilities available, she saw time and again that there was a need in medicine to address the whole person–not just the disease. There was a vital, human element that was missing. In treating her patients and advocating for her parents, she found the value in incorporating holistic treatments into the traditional medical model. In order to fill the voids she found in the conventional healthcare system, she changed the focus of her career and began training in Functional Medicine with the Institute for Functional Medicine to change the practice of medicine and how medicine is practiced.

Dr. O’Brien is a Certified Practitioner with and an active member of the Institute for Functional Medicine, the premier educational and certifying body leading the initiatives to change the way medicine is practiced in the United States and around the world through research, education, and policy transformation. Dr. O’Brien also maintains faculty position at the IFM where she is active in developing training programs to not only educate more doctors in the clinical practice of functional medicine but in development of business models that will allow more patients to access this life-changing form of care. She has completed all post-graduate training courses offered by the IFM and continues to attend advanced training in integrative and functional medicine.

Dr. O’Brien lives in Plano with her children. She is active in public health advocacy, non-toxic living, and gardening.