Dr. Ruby Gill: “I write lifestyle prescriptions!”

Medicine is a science, healing is an art, and both are needed to treat the whole human person. With every science, one must approach it with curiosity and humility. As with every art, one must come from a place of joy and empathy. Dr. Ruby Gill delights in both the art and the science of her vocation as a physician.

To her, the true practice of medicine is a marriage of the two, a focus on the internal and external to bring about restoration of the body and the soul. “That’s the joy of medicine, seeing the healing,” Dr. Gill said. Everything she does is driven by this curiosity and joy, from her many years of education and fellowships to opening her own practice, the Gill Aesthetic Institute and Gill Medical Group.

Seeking Knowledge Early
Since she was a little girl, Dr. Gill knew that she wanted to help people. She often found herself flipping through her mother’s nursing textbooks when she was very young, fascinated by what she read. “I always knew I wanted to be a doctor,” she said. “I wanted to know more. I was curious!” She credits her mother, a now-retired registered nurse, for inspiring her journey toward medicine. “My mom has always been my role model,” Dr. Gill said. “She was the perfect nurse, comforting, with a great bedside manner.” She vividly remembers being inspired by her mother’s tireless work throughout their childhood, finishing her night shifts while studying for licensing exams, and bringing home thank-you notes and cards written by her patients. “She would get so many cards from patients,” Dr. Gill said with a smile. “It made me really see the compassionate side to it all.” That example of tireless work and compassionate care “created a discipline in me,” Dr. Gill said, a discipline that drove her to become the first physician in her immediate family.

As she grew up, Dr. Gill had an insatiable thirst for knowledge. She competed in the United States Academic Decathlon and graduated high school a year early. She would spend her free time volunteering in hospitals, observing and assisting wherever she could in the NICU and ER. Her family lived in New York City for the first part of her childhood before they moved to the Bay Area, but she prefers to call herself a “nomad” over claiming either the East or West Coast as her home. After getting a scholarship to California State University East Bay, then known as Cal State Hayward, she double majored in biology and physiology and minored in psychology, then attended Ross University School of Medicine. She split her different rotations between New York and California, visiting multiple parts of the states in order to experience hospital settings in urban and rural locations.

Watch and Listen
Dr. Gill completed her residency at a UC Irvine affiliate hospital, describing it as a “great learning experience,” and she still cherishes the wisdom she received from many of her attending physicians. Certain sayings in particular stuck with her as she went on to forge her own career in medicine. The first was a doctor who emphasized the importance of listening, saying, “Eighty percent of the diagnosis is in the history; you need to sit and listen to them, and the clues will come to you.” As she worked with patients, Dr. Gill found herself relying more and more on the skills she gained studying psychology, both in the way it helped her arrive at a diagnosis and the healing impact of a listening ear on her patients. “I love psychology and mental health, and I love the way it connects to physical health as well,” she said. But the second quote in particular shaped her entire approach to the practice of medicine. Dr. Gill said, “One of my attending physicians in residency always said, ‘The eyes do not see what the mind does not know.’ It inspired me to forever be a student and forever learn, forever be intellectually humble and be willing to do what you can.” This mindset has followed her throughout her career, hand in hand with the inspiration of her mother’s hard work and compassion.

After gaining her board certification in family medicine and meeting her husband, she moved to the San Joaquin County area, calling the move an “unexpected turn in life” but not an unwelcome one. Her husband became one of her greatest supporters and biggest cheerleaders, encouraging her to follow her curiosity wherever it led even if it wasn’t strictly conventional. “Without him, my trajectory would not have been the same,” she said. As she continued to work in medicine, focusing on family medicine and primary care, she felt something was missing. She wanted to bring the standard of care she’d experienced in cutting-edge hospitals to the Central Valley, and she knew she would have fewer limitations if she branched out from corporate medicine. With her husband’s support, she transitioned from outpatient service to opening her own practice, even seeing patients when she was five weeks postpartum.

Connecting Aesthetics and Healing
In the meantime, Dr. Gill had also completed an aesthetics fellowship, inspired by the connection she saw between aesthetics, mental health and healing the whole person. “I don’t see aesthetics as vanity,” Dr. Gill said. “I see it as self-esteem.” As a teen, she struggled with acne and went through the basic regimens of antibiotics and medications, but she still dealt with scarring and was told that her skin color gave her limited treatment options. That answer didn’t sit right with her. “This can’t be it, there has to be more,” she said. Dr. Gill also wanted to make premium resources available in San Joaquin County itself, limiting the need for patients to commute to Sacramento or the Bay Area. She became the first local physician to offer Sciton® laser therapy, the industry’s gold standard, and remains the only physician in the county with the full complex laser platform.

Despite her busyness as a doctor, business owner, wife and mother of two, Dr. Gill continued to look for ways to grow and learn. Often when she was treating patients, she found herself organically integrating her wide variety of experience when developing treatment plans or a diagnosis. It felt counterintuitive to isolate symptoms when treating them; from mental health to skin issues to hormonal imbalances, all were often interconnected at some deep level. It seemed like the natural next step was to pursue a fellowship in integrative medicine. Especially over the past few years, integrative medicine has started to gain recognition for its holistic approach to healing, and once again her husband strongly supported her, even attending conferences with her. She earned another board certification, making her a double-board-certified physician in family medicine and integrative medicine.

Combining integrative medicine with aesthetics gave Dr. Gill a unique niche. Her practice began to focus on integrative aesthetics, with a forte toward women’s health, hormone health and metabolic health. She is known for applying her experience both as a physician and as a patient herself; her difficult experiences with pregnancy and hormone depletion give her an empathetic view into her patients’ struggles. “From the integrative health perspective, I have so many tools in my toolbox now to never leave a woman without an answer,” she said. “Imagine what would happen if women’s issues were addressed instead of dismissed.” Her intake questionnaire is notoriously extensive, but so are her results. “Sometimes I treat with traditional prescriptions, and sometimes with supplements and diet changes and specific recommendations,” Dr. Gill said. “I see phenomenal differences. It’s a bit of a different approach. I write lifestyle prescriptions!” Her passion for finding answers and helping people become the best versions of themselves, supplemented by her integrative approach often brings her clients the healing they have sought for years.

Help is Here
While her specialty is women’s health, including being a certified Menopause Society practitioner, Dr. Gill also often sees men for a variety of reasons. “I love it when people come in as couples, supporting each other and raising awareness,” she said. She also hopes her practice will continue to empower everyone, both men and women, and help them learn to prioritize self-care and living a healthy, integrated life. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to take care of yourself, physically, emotionally, externally, internally,” she said. She fights vehemently against the idea that there is a particular marker of suffering to reach before a patient can ask for help: “Don’t dismiss yourself,” she said. “You deserve attention and care.” Having practiced nearly ten years of integrative hormonal management and aesthetics, she also looks forward to expanding the integrative part of her practice in the future, hoping to reach more people and help them find healing from the inside out.

Dr. Gill is no stranger to forging a new path; from being a first-generation immigrant and the first physician in her family to pioneer state-of-the-art technology in her local community, she embraces being a trailblazer. Her thirst for knowledge constantly drives her to become a better scientist, asking questions and making hypotheses as she searches for truth and answers for her patients. Her empathy, joy and curiosity help her cultivate a welcoming and healing environment, reminding her why she loves her job. “It fills my cup and brings me joy to have those healing encounters,” she said. No matter who you are, no matter what you might be struggling with on your journey toward healing, whether you’re searching for an answer to chronic inflammation or hormonal imbalances, or simply looking for a way to boost your self-esteem through fading old scars or enhancing your natural beauty, Dr. Gill is ready to walk with you every step of the way.