The Center for Environmental and Integrative Medicine (CEIM) is East Tennessee’s first comprehensive integrative medicine facility.  Dr. Joseph E. Rich is the founder and director of CEIM.  Dr. Rich began his medical career specializing in Public Health & Preventive Medicine and Obstetrics and Gyneology/ Women’s Health Care. He naturally progressed from Women’s Health Care to Weight Management, since many of his new mothers asked for his help in loosing their pregnancy weight.  In response to the increasing demand for weight control services, he founded the Physicians' Weight Management Center (PWMC) four years ago. Since weight control and nutrition are closely tied to nutrition and environment, and to meet the increasingly complex needs of his patients, Dr Rich expanded his practice to include Environmental Medicine. Since his medical philosophy is one of holistic and integrative medical care and his desire to serve as a resource for other complementary and alternative health care providers, as well as the public, he formally established The Center for Environmental and Integrative Medicine in Knoxville.

Dr. Rich was born in Germany and grew up in rural New York State where his parents immigrated after WWII and his father practiced “old time” medicine, making housecalls and listening to his patients, who were also his friends and neighbors. As “doc’s son”, Dr. Rich learned the art of compassionate care first hand and saw that there was more to medicine than just lab tests and pills. He earned a B.S. in natural sciences at Muhlenburg College in Allentown, PA; began medical training at the University of Vienna, Austria; and graduated magna cum laude on a full scholarship at the University of the Saar (Germany). After completing two years of further clinical training in Germany he completed postgraduate resident training in public health and preventive medicine at the University of Oregon and Ob/Gyn training at the University of Michigan Medical Center where he also received a Master of Public Health degree with honors. He completed his Ob/Gyn residency at Stanford University Medical Center entering private practice in Kansas and Kentucky before settling in Tennessee. Dr. Rich has been in East TN since 1995 where he has specialized in Women's Health and Environmental/Integrative Medicine.

Dr. Rich is certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, American Board of Medical Management, American Board of Chelation Therapy,  American Board of Oxidative Medicine and qualified by the American Board of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and American Board of Environmental Medicine. He is a member of the American College for the Advancement of Medicine, International College of Integrative Medicine, American Public Health Association, American Society of Bariatric Physicians, and International Bio-Oxidative Medicine Association among others.  He has published numerous articles and presented to a number of professional societies, as well as public forums.