Fifty Years of Pioneering: The Riordan Clinic Story
In the early 1970s, while most of American medicine was doubling down on rigid protocols and one-size-fits-all treatments, Dr. Hugh Riordan had a different dream. He wanted to create a place where he and others could think freely—a clinic where patients weren’t just passive recipients of care, but active “co-learners” interested in taking charge of their own health. That vision became the Riordan Clinic, and for the past fifty years, it has stood as a beacon of courage and compassion, revolutionizing how we think about healing.
A Different Kind of Medicine
What made the Riordan Clinic so radically different? In an era when medical institutions operated with regular uniformity, Riordan Clinic dared to embrace both structure and creativity. “Most, if not all, medical institutions are highly left-brained. This means highly structured and rigid. Everyone had to follow conventional pathways of thought, or they were shunned,” recalls Dr. Ron Hunninghake, who has been integral to Riordan Clinic’s journey for over 30 years. “To work at Riordan Clinic meant that you had to open your mind and look for new pathways based upon the unique individuality of your patient to help them find a way to better health.”
Dr. Riordan himself embodied this balance. His approach was simultaneously detail-oriented and holistic, grounded, and progressive. Dr. Ron remembers him as “a creative genius, looking for an opportunity to take this vision and make it real.” Even on weekends, you could spot Dr. Riordan’s car in the parking lot, visible from the highway. He was working toward his dream—a dream that wasn’t easy to explain to a skeptical medical establishment. Riordan Clinic’s unique architecture, both philosophical and literal, with its distinctive domes, made it easy for some to dismiss. “It was just weird, in their minds,” Dr. Ron admits. “But it takes a little bit of genius to see genius.”
When Patients Became Partners
The patients who found their way to Riordan Clinic were desperate, frustrated, and ready for something different. When they first heard about intravenous vitamin C (IVC) or comprehensive nutrient testing, concepts that seemed almost radical decades ago, their response was profound enthusiasm.
This approach proved particularly transformative for patients dealing with complex chronic illness, those suffering from conditions that conventional medicine often struggles to address effectively. One story has stayed with Dr. Ron throughout his career: a woman from his hometown who came to him depressed, fatigued, and lost. She was on synthetic thyroid medication, but her reverse T3 levels were dangerously elevated. “By simply adding small amounts of T3, it totally turned her life around. I saw this phenomenon over and over again, especially in fibromyalgia patients.”
Patients with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, autoimmune conditions, and other complex illnesses have always been at the heart of Riordan Clinic’s mission. They’re often mistreated by a healthcare system that has no clear protocols for their conditions. To this day, many physicians won’t even measure reverse T3, leaving countless patients trapped in functional hypothyroidism and other treatable conditions. For these co-learners, the Riordan Clinic has represented something precious: hope grounded in science, compassion paired with innovation.
The Evolution of Healing
Over the decades, the Riordan Clinic’s understanding of healing has matured into something both more sophisticated and more practical. It’s no longer just about vitamins or tests or any single intervention.
“I now see healing as a fairly complex process where the patient must shift their identity to active co-learner,” Dr. Ron reflects. “They then need accurate data about their body chemistry and hormone levels. They need to understand how to use this data to create a doable treatment plan that involves biochemical, hormonal, and lifestyle changes that accurately fit their needs.”
This comprehensive approach has made Riordan Clinic a destination for people who feel they’ve run out of options. They come because they see it as “a place of hope. Not false hope, but a realistic hope, based upon an expanded paradigm of true health care, not just disease management.”
That expanded paradigm has always included integrative oncology as a cornerstone, but it extends far beyond cancer care. Riordan Clinic’s team of physicians and naturopathic doctors works across specialties, addressing cardiovascular health, metabolic disorders, hormonal imbalances, gastrointestinal issues, and the complex chronic illnesses that often defy easy categorization. Whether a patient sees a medical doctor for advanced lipid testing and cardiovascular risk assessment or a naturopathic physician for comprehensive hormone balancing, the philosophy remains the same: understand the individual, optimize their 2 biochemistry, and empower them to be active participants in their healing.
A Worldwide Legacy
Perhaps the most tangible measure of Riordan Clinic’s impact is how far its innovations have traveled. The Riordan IVC Protocol for cancer patients is now used worldwide. Even conventional institutions like the University of Iowa have adopted high-dose intravenous vitamin C, according to the Riordan Protocol, tripling the survival rates of advanced pancreatic cancer patients when combined with conventional chemotherapy.
When asked what he’s most proud of when reflecting on the Clinic’s impact over the last 50 years, Dr. Ron highlighted the protocol’s success and validation: conventional oncology finally recognized what Riordan Clinic had known for decades.
Yet Riordan Clinic’s influence extends well beyond oncology. Its three foundational standards—education, research, and innovative care—have shaped an entire movement. “All three of those are aligned together and depend upon each other,” Dr. Ron notes. “There is no way forward in the health arena without these three foundational ideals.”
From Wichita, these breakthroughs have rippled outward, touching lives across the country and around the world.
Stimulating an Epidemic of Health
Dr. Riordan had a particular phrase he loved: “stimulating an epidemic of health.” It was his way of turning the concept of an epidemic on its head. Rather than a worldwide threat, why not a worldwide transformation? “If enough people would wake up and start walking these pathways, then truly a worldwide epidemic of better health could be achieved,” Dr. Ron says.
This wasn’t just idealism. It was a response to a genuine crisis. The United States, despite having the world’s most expensive healthcare system, consistently ranks around 48th in actual health outcomes. “We have ‘missed the boat.’ We have a very expensive healthcare system that favors the institutions at the expense of the health of the individual patient. This is a travesty,” Dr. Ron says. “Dr. Riordan wanted to turn that boat around and highlight the capabilities of each patient to achieve a higher level of human functioning if they had the right knowledge about their own bodies.”
The Third Generation of Hope
Remarkably, Riordan Clinic has remained true to its founding vision even as medicine around it has transformed. “The clinic has really not changed that much. We continue to do what we have done for the last 50 years,” Dr. Ron observes. What has changed is the world’s readiness to listen. Functional and integrative medicine are now blossoming everywhere.
The arrival of a new generation of providers, including naturopathic doctors who specialize in integrative oncology and physicians across all specialties, fills Dr. Ron with optimism. “I am thrilled that our naturopathic doctors are stepping up and grabbing the reins. I believe that their energy and enthusiasm will clearly and powerfully lead us into the third era of the Riordan Clinic.”
The first generation planted the seeds. The second generation carried the vision forward through decades of asking different questions and pioneering integrative medicine. Now, the third generation is here, including not just providers and staff, but co-learners, families, and supporters working together to ensure the next fifty years of healing.
The commitment for the next decade is clear and ambitious: bring the Riordan Approach to 10,000 new co-learners, expanding access, advancing research, and ensuring that no one is turned away due to financial barriers. This is the movement that will carry the Riordan Clinic mission forward—a shared commitment to the healing still to come.
Carry On and Be Courageous
What would Dr. Riordan say if he could see the Clinic now? Dr. Ron doesn’t hesitate: “Carry on and do your best! Be courageous!”
Those words capture something essential about the Riordan Clinic story. It has always required courage to challenge medical orthodoxy, trust patients as partners, pursue research that others dismissed, and keep showing up even when the work seemed thankless.
But it has also been, in the deepest sense, a labor of love. For Dr. Ron, looking back on fifty years, the journey has been profoundly meaningful. “I had always hoped that I would have a life ‘well lived.’ Thanks to Dr. Riordan and the Riordan Clinic and to my beautiful wife and family… I think I can check that box! And I am grateful!”
The next fifty years await—a continuation of courage and compassion, a movement built on the foundation of those who dared to ask different questions, and an invitation to everyone who believes in the power of true healthcare.
