About Dr Patrick Magovern — Functional Medicine, Family Practice & a Lifetime of Clinical Experience

My name is Dr Patrick Magovern, and even in my seventies I remain as committed and curious about medicine as the day I began. After almost five decades in practice—across Ireland, the UK, Canada, and the United States—I still approach each clinic day with enthusiasm. I still learn, still listen, and still meet every new patient with fresh eyes.

Professional Memberships

• Member, Irish College of General Practitioners
• Fellow, Royal Society of Medicine
• Member, American Academy of Ozone Therapy
• Member, International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illness

These communities provide access to research, clinical collaboration, and ongoing education.

Commitment to Continuous Learning

Most years, I travel to the United States for advanced training with physicians specialising in functional and integrative medicine. I also attend European conferences when conducted in English. Continuous education ensures that my practice evolves alongside emerging research and global clinical experience.

Career Highlights

Medical Training

• MB BCh BAO, University College Dublin, 1980
• Internship, Dublin (1980–1981)
• GP Postgraduate Training – Kent, UK (1981–1984)

Family Practice & Clinical Roles

• General Practice – Ireland (1984–1986)
• Family Medicine & Obstetrics – Alberta, Canada (1986–1989)
• Medical Examiner / Coroner – Northern Alberta (1987–1989)
• Family Medicine – Vancouver, BC (1989–1996, Burnaby General Hospital privileges)
• Functional Medicine & General Practice – Dublin (1997–present)

Additional Training

• Medical Acupuncture – Acupuncture Foundation of Canada
• UCLA Medical Acupuncture Certification
• Clinical Teacher – UCLA (1994–2003)
• US Board Certification in Medical Acupuncture
• Nutritional Medicine – University of Surrey
• Allergy, Environmental Medicine, IV Therapies, Ozone, Prolozone

What Keeps Me Going

What keeps me going is simple:

I love helping people who haven’t found answers elsewhere.

My work centres on patients who have been fully investigated within conventional medicine but still feel unwell, stuck, or overlooked. These are the individuals who need a deeper, root-cause approach—the heart of functional and family medicine.

My Functional Medicine & Family Practice Approach

While I remain fully grounded in evidence-based medicine, my clinical focus is on those with complex, persistent, or unexplained symptoms. These conditions almost never come from a single cause. Instead, they arise from clusters of triggers—nutritional, immune, environmental, neurological, emotional, and metabolic.

Traditional pharmaceutical research and guidelines work beautifully for acute illness or emergencies. But most of my patients have already exhausted all available protocols before they arrive.

That is why I draw on both:

• standard evidence-based practice, and
• the collective clinical wisdom of functional medicine physicians worldwide

My guiding philosophy is simple:

Every patient is an individual—not a protocol.

Mentors Who Shaped My Practice

Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to learn from exceptional teachers:

• Dr Joseph Helms – Founder of the UCLA Medical Acupuncture Program
• Dr Sidney MacDonald Baker – A pioneer whose work opened my eyes to the link between digestive health and chronic illness
• Dr Neil Nathan – A leader in mould-related illness, mast cell activation, trauma-informed medicine, and complex chronic disease

Teaching on the UCLA Medical Acupuncture and Pain Management programme, and training internationally, allowed me to meet clinicians who think deeply, creatively, and compassionately.

Still Connected to Mainstream Medicine

Although my daily practice focuses on functional medicine, complex illness, and root-cause assessment, I remain fully integrated with standard medical systems:

• Annual re-accreditation as a General Practitioner
• Fully registered on the Specialist Register of the Irish Medical Council
• Continuing Professional Development with the Irish College of General Practitioners

Staying connected to standard and integrative medicine ensures that my patients receive care that is balanced, safe, and modern.

Why I Chose Medicine

I didn’t come from a medical family. Instead, I was inspired by the doctors I admired in literature—curious, grounded, compassionate thinkers who changed lives through listening and insight.

On qualifying, I was somewhat disappointed to discover that modern medicine had become increasingly algorithmic. Excellent for acute conditions, but often less effective for long-term, unexplained symptoms.

Functional medicine allowed me to return to the heart of what drew me to medicine:
curiosity, listening, and truly seeing the whole person.

As Hippocrates is believed to have said:

“Life is short, and the craft is long.”

Every year in practice deepens my understanding of that wisdom.