Interview with Steve Liu, LAc

AAOM is pleased to introduce its Qi-Unity Report readers to Steve Liu, LAc, and President Emeritus of AzSOMA. Steve is a featured speaker at Expo 2006 on Laser Acupuncture – Theory, Research and Application (Class cc. Sunday October 22, 2006 from 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM).

Steve Liu, LAc, has a BS in Electrical Engineering, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA. He specializes in Laser Acupuncture in Tucson, Arizon and has written articles on Laser Acupuncture, published in the California Journal of Oriental Medicine (CJOM), by the California State Oriental Medical Association (CSOMA). Dr. Liu is President of the Arizona Society of Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture (AzSOMA).

By: Rebekah Christensen, AAOM ED

Q: What do you see as the three top issues facing state association leadership?

A: I am currently in the process of establishing a leadership tank which will be similar to a think tank for the Washington DC political elites. My idea of having a leadership tank is to guarantee the leadership future for our association in Arizona. I believe that the #1 problem facing each statewide association in this country is that people do not get involved. A lot of people do not even join, let alone volunteer, their service to the association. For instance, our Board is made up of 7 members who are hard working individual volunteers and find time and energy regardless of how busy they are. In order to guarantee a continual supply of valid and good leadership to ensure the survival of the association, I proposed having a leadership tank model. I think this will be a good approach.

Our first meeting on this idea is this Sunday, and we are trying to come up with procedures and protocols on how to "home grow" leaders; we are going to try to nourish these people to eventually become leaders of the organization because without leaders there is no voice leading this profession, and therefore no organization. Any state association can look to AAOM as a role model. Because of their strong, outstanding leadership year after year, the organization is now in the driver’s seat for the entire national agenda representing all TCM/OM practitioners.

Another issue facing our state leadership is the communication with our members. Besides email alerts, functions such as a conference and the Chinese New Year party, and the newsletters, we in Arizona also organize several “mixers” that target state northern, central, and southern regions. The mixer party is run by our regional representatives who are also part of board makeup. Its main function is to meet association board members and discuss issues and concerns. It reaches an audience face-to-face that otherwise would not be accessible to many members due to traveling constraints. In other words, the association board meets the members, not the other way around. It’s a win-win situation, and distant members appreciate the effort.

The third issue would be the communication between the state and national associations. There will be incidences that the state association will need help from the AAOM to lend ammunitions for a battle of state OM legislation. And often the AAOM will pass on legal alerts or action alerts to states. I am not sure that the communication channels which are in place are able to effectively handle issues that arise. In Arizona, we are fortunate to have a board member who is also a board member of the AAOM. Through him we are in a much better place to have a more effective dialogue between the two associations. One way to help is to designate a state board member who can be a liaison to the national association and establish an email alert system that can transmit national association messages quickly and effectively. The state regional representatives can follow up with phone calls or emails.

Q: Can you describe some of the differences in how Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is practiced in the United States as opposed to mainland China?

A: We already knew that in China TCM treatments are often given daily and the government picks up a big share of the cost. Unlike in China, many American patients can only afford a treatment once or twice a week, and usually pay out of their own pockets. Another difference is that in TCM care is readily available in any hospitals regardless whether they are Western- or TCM-oriented clinics.

In 2000, I traveled to Shanghai and had an opportunity to visit several very reputable hospitals there. What impressed me the most was the degree of integration of TCM and western medicine. For example, a top TCM hospital has an MRI facility while a top surgical hospital has an acupuncture and herbal department. When a woman was admitted for uterus bleeding, she was first examined by an Ob/GYN doctor and given a western procedure to stop the bleeding. Then she was referred to an acupuncturist and herbalist downstairs for more treatments. Later she was discharged with Chinese herbs to take home. Later that day I ran into a woman doctor giving tuina to an infant patient in the pediatric ward. I remembered that I had heard from a top official at the hospital (in a speech to foreign visitors at a dinner) that he was working hard to transform this hospital to be the most integrated hospital in the Asia. That was six years ago. I often wonder if this will ever happen in the United States.

However, it is changing here in America. Many of my acupuncturist friends in California are practicing in Kaiser hospitals. I had a patient who got pregnant after receiving Western fertility treatment in conjunction with acupuncture in a Mayo Clinic Hospital. I live in Tucson, the home town of Dr. Andrew Weil, guru of the integrative medical program at the University of Arizona, where acupuncture is taught along with traditional Western medicine. I dream of one day having a clinic where an MRI facility is right next to a TCM clinic so patients can have a clear western diagnosis and receive acupuncture treatment and other TCM modalities under one roof.

Q: How do you bridge these two worlds?

A: Sometimes I felt the two worlds in terms of TCM and Western medicine integration could never meet in this country under current insurance payment structure and Western medical referral system. If a doctor does not refer patients to a TCM practitioner and an insurance company does not pay for acupuncture and herbal treatments, the majority of American patients would never be told of the benefits of TCM care and may only be able to afford short duration treatment even they find it helpful.

However, I am seeing a trend among our profession that bridges the two worlds. The first I call vertical and the second horizontal. The vertical involves the personal development that may include continuing education in both TCM and Western medical fields. Often in seminars sponsored by TCM associations and schools I see side-by-side contrast and comparison of Western diagnosis and TCM explanation of these diagnoses. The TCM practitioners learn new language and knowledge of the latest development in some difficult modern Western diseases. Two shining examples are TCM treatments of depression and autoimmune diseases . Horizontal development is for TCM practitioners to meet and network with Western medical doctors proactively. I have often called doctors that my patients like and asked them to have lunch with me. During such processes trust and understanding are earned on both sides, and as a result patients receive the best of treatment options from both worlds. Maybe, just maybe, that in the near future there will be a joint conference between AMA and AAOM – what a beautiful thought!

Q: What is the current status and future of laser acupuncture in the practice of OM. It's origin - it's current status - it's role in the future?

A: It’s widely known that acupuncture points, or acupoints, can be stimulated by many forms of energy such as heat and electricity, and mechanical pressure other than needles. Using laser light to stimulate an acupoint to treat diseases is a fairly new idea in this country, although it has been practiced in China and Europe for over 30 years. I first encountered laser acupuncture on a trip to Beijing in 1999.A patient was holding a fiber optic cable with one end of the cable plugged into an electronic device and the other at an acupoint behind the ear lobe (SJ-17). I later found out the device emitted laser light, and the patient came to treat his Bell’s Palsya facial paralysis condition. I asked patient how he was doing. He told me that he had received many courses of needle acupuncture treatments and recovered greatly. He was then left alone to use laser acupuncture to treat by himself once a day every day to further help his recovery. . I was very impressed due to the fact the patient was actually left alone to treat himself with minimum supervision by medical staff.

University of Graz in Austria recently published their 5-year study of laser acupuncture and found the modality to be very effective and patient-friendly because there are no piercing needles involved. According to their report there are 5 European countries are conducting laser acupuncture studies. The procedure is painless, non-invasive, and “green” – no physical materials such as tubes and needles are disposed of after each treatment. I do not believe laser acupuncture will ever replace traditional needle acupuncture, but I wholeheartedly believe it will play a significant role in OM practice. There are too many people will never get the benefit of TCM because of they are needle-phobic. What the modality needs in the future is more research for its clinical applications. The infrared laser acupuncture lends itself to be an excellent tool in a true double-blind study due to the fact that both practitioners and patients can not see the invisible infrared light. I see the 21st century to be the century of photons just as the 20th century was the century of electrons. With that in mind, I am organizing an association to dedicate to the education, innovation, research, and application of laser acupuncture with hope that in the near future it will become another tool as fantastic as needle acupuncture for all TCM practitioners.

Q: How do you view the importance of membership in both a State and National association?

A: I am the President Emeritus of our state association in Arizona and a member of the AAOM. Any practicing acupuncturists should at least belong to both their State and National Association - AAOM because these are the bodies that represent acupuncture professionals and the practice of OM. I cannot see any reason why a practitioner would not. I think it is very important to be a good practitioner and educator. That way we can always keep ourselves up to date as far as state and national agendas and regarding the knowledge they receive through the CEUs offered by these organizations.

My patients often ask me for a referral to an acupuncturist in another state, and I am sure most acupuncturists have this experience, too. You know what I tell them? Since most of time I do not have the answers, I simply tell them to Google the state association or the AAOM website for its list of members. Then it will be another state or national association member that gets the referral, not the non-members. I encourage you to get involved by joining your respective state association and the AAOM.

Q: How can the AAOM best assist our state associations?

A: One time I had a discussion with Rebekah at a meeting in Phoenix. In the meeting I proposed to her that the the AAOM help state associations develop a referral network. Here is how I imagined the referral network to work: Anytime a patient wants to have a referral from his/her acupuncturist in another state or city the acupuncturist is not familiar with, the acupuncturist can log in to AAOM’s website and search for any affiliated state member that fits the requirements such as zip code and telephone area code. AAOM’s site will come back with a list that shows the closest acupuncturists’ contact information and the driving distance in miles. The listed acupuncturists will automatically receive an email with the referring acupuncturist's email address and name. When the patient actually shows up at the referred clinic, their treatment history can be requested through email. The patient will then feel comfortable that these two acupuncturists are focused on the care of him or her. This is a win-win-win situation for the states’ member acupuncturists and the AAOM, as an appreciated match-maker.