Katherine Birchenough is a board-certified emergency medical doctor and was only the fourth MD in South Carolina to be certified through the Institute for Functional Medicine. For 12 years, she watched as unhealthy environments and poor lifestyle choices affected the health of her patients. She realized the pursuit of health, beyond just the absence of disease, is a specialty in and of itself but wasn’t available to traditional medical students. This realization brought her to a new career path in functional medicine and has fueled her passion to treat the patient, not just the symptoms.