About Us
Meet Dr. Sonya Kim, MD, MBA
- Patients cared for
- 40,000+Patients cared for
- Years of clinical experience
- 27+Years of clinical experience
- Founded Best MD House Calls
- 2009Founded Best MD House Calls
- Companies founded
- 5Companies founded
Her story
From the ER to root-cause medicine.
Dr. Sonya Kim has cared for more than 40,000 patients over 27 years of clinical practice. Board-certified in Emergency Medicine, she spent years on the front lines of some of the highest-acuity moments in medicine — and kept noticing the same pattern: most of what she was treating in the ER had been building, quietly, for years. That observation reshaped her entire career.
In 2009, she founded Best MD House Calls to practice medicine the way she believes it should work: proactively, in-depth, and centered on the patient rather than the appointment slot. Today the practice spans three areas — functional and longevity medicine, in-home concierge care for the SF Peninsula, and medical-legal consulting for families and attorneys navigating capacity and conservatorship — all built on the same premise: find the root cause, don’t just manage the symptom.
Functional Medicine
Why Functional Medicine, Why Now
Functional medicine treats the root cause of a symptom — not just the symptom itself — using tools like Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT), functional lab testing, and personalized lifestyle medicine.
Most medicine is built to react — a symptom gets a name, then a prescription to quiet it. Functional medicine, as Dr. Sonya practices it, starts earlier: it’s built on root cause analysis, tracing a symptom back to the underlying physiology driving it — hormones, gut function, sleep architecture, nutrient status, and metabolism — rather than treating each complaint as its own isolated event.
That distinction matters most to patients who’ve heard “your labs are normal” while still not feeling like themselves. Normal is a range, not a guarantee of wellness — and that gap is exactly where root-cause functional medicine works. Dr. Sonya’s plans draw on Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT), targeted supplementation, functional lab testing, and lifestyle medicine — not as a fixed protocol, but as tools she sequences differently for every patient, built around the life they’re actually living.
Credentials
Training & licensure
- Board-certified, Emergency Medicine (ABEM)
- MD; dual MBA — Columbia Business School (Marketing) and UC Berkeley Haas School of Business (Entrepreneurship & Technology Product Management)
- B.A. Biochemistry, Oberlin College
- The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) alumna; Advanced BHRT Specialist, Academy of Preventive & Innovative Medicine / WorldLink Medical
- Licensed in California, Hawaii, and New Hampshire
- 20+ years as a medical-legal expert witness and consultant
- MD, SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine
- Residency in Emergency Medicine, MCP Hahnemann University, Philadelphia
- Phi Beta Kappa, Oberlin College
- Postgraduate Certificate, Functional & Longevity Medicine — Institute for Functional Medicine
- Postgraduate Certificate, BHRT & Medical Age Management — WorldLink Medical
- Board Eligible, Integrative Medicine
- Former emergency physician across Level I and Level II trauma centers
- Languages: English, Italian, Korean
Founder · Innovator · Physician
Beyond the Clinic
Dr. Sonya is a serial entrepreneur who has founded five companies, including One Caring Team, creator of the "Aloha VR" virtual reality program for isolated seniors. Aloha VR earned coverage from The Washington Post, NPR, and KQED, and led to a speaking invitation at The Economist’s Business of Longevity Conference. It’s the same instinct that drives her clinical work: when the standard model leaves people underserved, she builds something better.
Outside the practice, she swims daily, windsurfs, kiteboards, hikes, cooks, and sings opera — proof, she’ll tell you, that an active, curious life is the best medicine there is.
Serial entrepreneur
Founder of five companies, from Best MD House Calls (2009) to One Caring Team, a digital health social venture and pioneer in medical VR.
Aloha VR for seniors with dementia
An early pioneer of medical VR for dementia care — Aloha VR was evaluated in clinical studies measuring loneliness and depression outcomes in assisted living.
Human Kindness Program
Launched the Human Kindness Program.
National media & stages
Featured by The Washington Post, NPR, Hawaii News, and NBC Bay Area News; invited speaker at The Economist’s Business of Longevity, Morgan Stanley, and the Immerse Technology Summit.
An active, curious life
Windsurfing 
Surfing 
Kiteboarding near Alcatraz 
Kiteboarding on the bay
Media & Speaking
Selected media & speaking
5 media features · 11 invited talks
In the press
NBC Bay Area News
“House Calls Make Comeback” — featuring Dr. Sonya Kim and Best MD House Calls
2010
The Washington Post
“This physician is using virtual reality to treat patients with dementia”
2016
NPR
“Virtual Reality Aimed at the Elderly Finds New Fans”
2016
Hawaii News Now
“Virtual Reality Aimed at the Elderly Finds New Fans” — Aloha VR (TV)
2016
KQED
“Seniors Go Virtual to Relieve Pain, Loneliness”
2016
Invited talks · newest first
- 2017
Connected Health Conference
Digital health speaker
Boston, MA
- 2017April 2017
Society for Brain Mapping & Therapeutics
World Brain Mapping
Medical VR speaker
Los Angeles, CA
- 2017
Frost & Sullivan
MedTech Executive MindXchange
Speaker and Disruptive Innovator Award
San Diego, CA
- 2016
The Economist
Business of Longevity
Digital Health Disruptive Innovator Speaker
San Francisco, CA
- 2016
Immerse Technology Summit
Keynote speaker
Bellevue, WA
- 2016June 2016
Augmented World Expo
Medical VR speaker
Santa Clara, CA
- 2015
Morgan Stanley
Women’s Intelligence Trust Conference
Healthcare Innovation Speaker
San Francisco, CA
- 2015December 2015
BioMed Device / MedTech World
BioMed Device Wireless Medical Device Conference (MedTech World)
Medical VR speaker
San Jose, CA
- 2015
Immersive Technology Alliance
Medical VR speaker
Murcia, Spain
- 2015June 2015· Virtual
Games for Change
Games for Change Europe
Medical VR speaker
Paris, France
- 2015
Preventive Emotional Health Conference
Keynote speaker
Honolulu, HI
“Having worked in Level 1 and Level 2 trauma centers and cared for over 40,000 patients, I learned the real secret to living well at any age: root-cause analysis and functional medicine testing, then a personalized protocol built around you — food, movement, stress, sleep, mindfulness, and the therapies that fit your body. That’s the heart of integrative medicine, and it’s what this practice is built to deliver.”
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Functional medicine is a root-cause approach to health care. Instead of only treating a symptom, it investigates why the body’s underlying systems — hormonal, digestive, metabolic, and nervous — are out of balance, then builds a personalized plan to restore that balance.
Root cause analysis means tracing a symptom back to its underlying physiological driver — such as a hormone imbalance, gut dysfunction, chronic inflammation, or nutrient deficiency — rather than only prescribing something to suppress the symptom itself.
Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) uses hormones that are molecularly identical to those the human body produces naturally. Dr. Sonya prescribes and doses BHRT based on each patient’s individual lab results and symptoms, rather than a standardized regimen.
Feel like yourself again.
Most new patients start with a complimentary 15-minute call — no obligation, just a chance to see if this is the right fit before anything else.