Medicine for the way you want to live.
SALUS is a physician-led practice in Carlsbad, CA bringing sports medicine, performance care, metabolic health and healthy aging into one connected plan for active adults.
Four ways people come to SALUS.
Recovering from an injury, training for more, improving metabolic health or planning for decades of strength — each starts with a physician-level evaluation.
Injury & Pain
Get back to what you love, with a clear diagnosis and a plan built around your activity.
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Perform Better
Move better and go further, guided by assessment rather than guesswork.
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Improve Metabolic Health
More energy and a stronger foundation, through cardiometabolic assessment and medically guided change.
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Stay Strong & Active
Plan for healthy aging, with strength, mobility and prevention addressed together.
Learn more →Most clinics begin with one question:
“What hurts?”
SALUS begins with a different question:
“Tell me your story.”
The same philosophy. Never the same treatment plan.
The SALUS Framework is not an algorithm. It is a way of thinking.
A structured approach that ensures every patient is understood, every recommendation is individualized, and every clinical encounter contributes to continuous learning.
See the Whole Patient
Healing begins with listening. Before discussing treatment, we seek to understand who the patient is, what matters most to them, and what they hope to return to.
Analyze the Healing Environment
A diagnosis explains what is injured. It rarely explains why healing has stalled. We evaluate biological, mechanical, psychological, environmental, and behavioral barriers to recovery.
Load Intelligently
Healing is not passive. There is no universal rehabilitation program. Only the right progression for the right patient at the right time.
Utilize Evidence-Informed Interventions
The intervention should always match the problem. Never the other way around.
Study & Improve
Every patient contributes to improving the care of future patients. Clinical outcomes are measured. Protocols evolve.
Evidence-based care for an active, longer life.
We believe medicine is both a science and a human relationship.
Science gives us knowledge. Compassion gives that knowledge purpose.
The patient is our purpose
Patients are not procedures. We help people reclaim the activities that give their lives meaning.
Understand before you intervene
Diagnosis is more than naming a condition. Only then do we decide together which path forward makes the most sense.
Science guides us - Curiosity drives us
We will never allow marketing to outrun evidence. When evidence is incomplete, we acknowledge it.
Rehabilitation is medicine
Movement, education, recovery and progressive loading are not ancillary services. They are essential components of healing.
Meet the SALUS Team
A physician-led team working together across medical care, movement, recovery, and performance - so your plan feels connected from evaluation through return to activity.
Melissa Burman, MD, MHA
Board-Certified in Internal Medicine and Sports Medicine; performance and health optimization.
Christina Bray
Works with the physician to guide movement, strength and return to activity.
Cecelia Nguyen
Clinical support, education and patient guidance at every step.
Future specialists
Reusable card for new team members as SALUS grows.
Dr. Melissa Burman
SALUS brings dual Board-Certified Internal Medicine and Sports Medicine expertise to a focused model integrating sports medicine, performance, metabolic health, and healthy aging.
“Over the past several years, I have built a small version of this model within a traditional healthcare system. I have watched patients return to activities they believed they had lost forever. I have seen what happens when people are heard, educated, and treated as partners in their recovery.
SALUS was born from that realization. It is an attempt to build the kind of practice I have always wanted to work in.”
Read Dr. Burman's story- Board certified
- Internal Medicine · Sports Medicine
- Degrees
- MD, MHA
- Clinical focus
- Sports medicine, performance, metabolic health, healthy aging
- Training
- Sports Medicine Fellowship, Eisenhower Health, Palm Desert, CA · RMSK (musculoskeletal ultrasound) certification expected spring 2027 [confirm]
We diagnose people—not pictures.
Imaging is valuable. But imaging rarely tells the complete story. Every diagnostic study is interpreted within the context of your goals, examination, movement quality, history and lifestyle.
Technology should never define the practice. Clinical reasoning should.
Diagnostic ultrasound
In-office musculoskeletal imaging.
Image-guided procedures
Including orthobiologic injections.
Movement assessment
Strength, mobility and mechanics.
Metabolic testing
Labs and body-composition review.
Learn with SALUS
We believe the best way to care for your body is to understand how it works. That is why we keep creating ways for patients to deepen their knowledge between visits, so they can make informed decisions and perform at their best.
More learning resourcesThere is more than one path forward.
Start with a consultation. Tell us your story — what happened, what you've tried, and what you are hoping to return to.
Have imaging? Upload it before your visit.MRI, X-ray, CT or ultrasound · about 5 minutes