Skip to content
Speak to a Pharmacist

Mission

Providing assurance for suffering individuals and their families.

shutterstock_189651320

 

Access to more options
Our pharmacists aim to provide patients with complementary and alternative medical options to provide them relief from their suffering.

Helping to relief suffering
We work together with the patient and their family to maximize the utility of their prescription therapies, while offering integrative and complementary recommendations that help manage their symptoms and improve their quality of life.

Story

Integrative medicine is not new. In fact, many of the remedies for common ailments have been found in nature and used for thousands of years, and it is only with the invention of western medicine that “integration” has been required.
 
When we say “western medicine”, we mean using the scientific method to identify biologic targets of disease; make synthetic (lab-made) molecules against these targets; test these molecules in the cell and animal models, and eventually, in humans with and without disease; and finally, measure the changes in disease in humans with the synthetic molecules we have made.
 
Many of these synthetic compounds were derived from natural sources, including aspirin for pain, -statins for cholesterol, and -taxols used in chemotherapy.
In the last few decades, there has been a movement, among doctors and patients alike, to combine natural and synthetic remedies.
 
At Heracles, we want to provide our patients with the knowledge they need to successfully integrate complementary care into their current treatment regimen, using all available evidence that combines natural and synthetic options to maximize their quality of life.

Partners and Affiliations

UCSF
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA

USC
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

UOP
University of the Pacific
Stockton, CA

WeHeal Foundation
Los Gatos, CA

Cancer Commons Foundation
San Jose, CA

UCSB
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA

Society for Integrative Oncology

UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine
San Francisco, CA

Care Providers

0

Matthew Cummings, PharmD

Pharmacist

Matthew Cummings, PharmD is a licensed pharmacist and graduate from University of California San Francisco School of Pharmacy. Since 2017, he has worked directly with cancer patients to help relieve their symptoms and reduce their suffering throughout their chemotherapy, radiation, surgery or targeted therapy. His focus is on helping educate patients and doctors on symptom management options for cancer patients.

DonaldAbrams

Donald Abrams, MD

Medical Advisor

Donald I. Abrams, M.D. is an integrative oncologist at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. He was Chief of Hematology-Oncology at Zuckerberg San Francisco General from 2003-2017. He is considered to be a pioneer in the investigation of inhaled cannabis, having conducted studies funded by the NIH and the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research. His interest in botanical therapies led him to complete a two-year Fellowship in the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in December 2004. He co-edited the Oxford University Press textbook in Integrative Oncology with Andrew Weil, M.D.