Table of Contents:
- The Initial Consultation
- Integrator Blog News & Reports
- Upcoming Events for Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College, Berkeley, CA. Enroll early!
- Letter to the Editor
- NEW DATES! Robert Chu teaches Master Tung's Acupuncture
Greetings OM Members and Colleagues:
The American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AAAOM) announces that the New Orleans Conference brochure is available for download and that registration is now open for this conference.
Expo 2007 New Orleans
Attendees Brochure
Venue: Hampton Inn & Suites - 866-311-1200 (AAAOM Room Block)
Single to Quad Occupancy Rooms - $129
Single to Quad Occupancy King Beds - $179
Date: May 10 – 13, 2007
Expo 2007 New Orleans
Exhibitors Brochure
(Booths 3,4,11 are sold.)
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Regina Walsh Rachael Toomim
Conference 2007 Co-Chairs |
Let the Good Times Roll! That’s how they say it in New Orleans. This issue of the Qi-Unity Report is proud to feature AAAOM’s New Orleans Conference 2007!
Despite the traumatic events stemming from Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is a city that exemplifies enthusiasm and celebration of life. The city is brimming with the energy of renewal along side the celebration of its roots.
What better place to celebrate our Reunification Conference, as the newly united AAAOM honors our history and sets forth Rebuilding the Future, at the Hampton Inn Convention Center, located near the vibrant French Quarter of New Orleans, May 9—13, 2007. Built in the 1900's, this historic landmark, undamaged by the storm, has undergone a charming renovation.
What’s your pleasure? Crawfish Etouffe? Red Beans and Rice? The NADA Training? Working Class Acupuncture?
New Orleans is simmering with savory enticements, while the conference presenters provide “soul food” nourishment for your practice.
We’ve created a line-up of great speakers and in-depth courses that will inspire your work and support your patient’s quest for well-being. Network with practitioners from across the country and celebrate our profession and its impact on our community by becoming part of the unification celebration, the rebuilding of our future and the rebuilding of one of America’s great cities. From now until the the conference, AAAOM will be featuring articles and overviews from conference speakers. In this issue of the Qi-Unity Report, we are pleased to present:
The Initial Consultation - Getting to the Heart of the Matter
By Neil Gumenik, MAc(UK), LAc, DiplAc
The initial consultation is where it all begins. It provides us with an opportunity to learn who our patient is and what he or she truly needs in order to be whole and healthy in body, mind, and spirit. Every area we explore - even the most seemingly simple - such as "Where do you live?" or "What do you do for a living?" can provide us with a wealth of information if we are attentive to the clues we are given and know how to ask the right questions.
Join us in New Orleans. Let the Good Times Roll!
As the largest and oldest provider of acupuncture insurance in the country, we offer the benefit of experience,
enabling you to enlist the protection of the industry’s leading carrier backed by a veteran legal defense team —
at the lowest premiums you’ll find anywhere. You deliver peace-of-mind to your patients. Find out how we can do
the same for you. Visit www.acupuncturecouncil.com.The Initial Consultation
Getting to the Heart of the Matter
By Neil R. Gumenick, M.Ac. (UK), L.Ac., Dipl. Ac.
In Classical Five-Element Acupuncture, the goal of the Traditional Diagnosis is to identify the primary elemental imbalance (Causative Factor) of the patient’s disease and the level of the imbalance: physical, mental, or spiritual. The initial consultation, also called the Traditional Diagnosis, is an opportunity to bring all diagnostic skills into play: seeing, asking, hearing, feeling, and smelling.
It is not enough, however, to know what element or organ/function to treat. We must determine the unique and specific needs of the individual patient before us. To do this, we must skillfully question in order to reach beneath the patient’s superficial level of response to the deeper issues that must be addressed. We must remember that all patients, like all of us, wear “masks” or facades and do not openly reveal their true feelings, but only those that they wish to be seen. To gain the patient’s trust is of utmost importance and the vital skills of rapport lead to the creation of that trust.
In the initial consultation, we inquire into many aspects of a patient’s life, any or all of which can reveal a wealth of information about who the patient is and what he or she needs in order to be helped toward balance and harmony. As an example, in asking a patient’s occupation, the mere fact of a person having a specific occupation tells us relatively little. Discovering who that individual is in relation to that job tells us much.
We know that people have strong feelings about their jobs – positively, negatively, but rarely neutral. Work is a primary identity for most people, taking up most of their waking time. Thus, if a patient is a taxi driver, for example, I am led by my curiosity to ask further and question more deeply about it. I might ask how he or she enjoys the job. One taxi driver might simply love the job – meeting people, conversing socially, or always being on the move. Another might love the independence it provides. Another might be doing the job as a last ditch effort to make ends meet – perhaps having been laid off from a former more lucrative job, perhaps frustrated and resentful, fearful, depressed, or resigned. Who the patient is in relation to their job (or any area of inquiry) is what fascinates me and conveys what the person needs. What does this person get from the job? Why does he/she do it? What needs does it fulfill? Thus, I use questioning as a means of going deeper into a patient’s experience until I get to the “heart of the matter.”
Not all areas of inquiry will be equally or entirely fruitful. If there is no emotional charge or challenge in an area, I move on to another. When I am presented with an “opening” that strikes my curiosity, I venture inside. An area of a patient’s life that holds emotional charge is neither good nor bad, but merely indicates a place where balancing may be needed. Here, I must also consider if the emotion is appropriate to the situation. Nature has provided us with five emotions, all normal and healthy expressions in a given set of circumstances. When I perceive a patient’s emotion to be inappropriate, either by its excess or deficiency, it I view it as a cry for help and of great significance diagnostically.
Then, my choice of points, used for their spiritual connotations, will be an exact response to the need of the patient. The Chinese, in their brilliance, determined the physical, mental and spiritual gifts each point is capable of providing. The point names, translated from the Chinese characters, in conjunction with pulse diagnosis, accurate diagnosis of the Causative Factor, and the removal of specific energetic blocks, can and do provide the needed help for virtually every challenge a human being can face.
Professor Neil R. Gumenick is Founder and Director of The Institute of Classical Five-Element Acupuncture Inc. in Los Angeles, which provides training to licensed acupuncturists, physicians, and students in this profound body/mind/spirit system of acupuncture. Neil has been in private practice since 1981 and holds three degrees and an advanced teaching credential from the College of Traditional Acupuncture (UK), awarded by the late Professor J.R. Worsley. He will be presenting a seminar “The Initial Consultation – the Foundation of Practice” at the AAAOM Expo on Saturday May 12, 2007 from 2:15 – 6:15 PM. Neil can be reached at (310) 453-2235, at his website: www.5elements.com, or by email: nrg@5elements.com.
Integrator Blog News & Reports
Integration, by nature, asks us to open our peripheral visions. We are served to look at the whole of the field. We need to develop new fascia, new connectivity. Opportunities crop up in new places. The Integrator Blog News and Reports is meant to provide you with information, insights and tools to enhance integrated care in the environment you serve.
- John Weeks, publisher-editor
Tales of Two Surveys on CAM: Thomsen-Medstat Finds 37% Using, AARP & NCCAM Find Seniors Still Not Talking...
Two recently published surveys on complementary and alternative medicine topics suggest that use is stable, at 37%, and that seniors, at least, are still not talking to their physicians about their use of alternative medicines. The first survey was engaged by Thomson-Medstat and the latter by the AARP in association with NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Both surveys include useful breakdowns on types of therapies, motivations for use, and other topics. Interestingly, the Thomson-Medstat survey found that more than twice as high a percentage of those surveyed were talking with their doctors about their use of CAM as was found in the AARP-NCCAM survey of seniors. Pus $100,000 families lead use - thus the battle for recognition by well-off medical doctors shapes up as intra-class warfare...
Link
Survey Data on Yoga and Coaching Practices, Plus More Info on Massage
Two surveys were reported this month, one by the International Coach Federation on the coaching industry, demographics and income, and the other, by the Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals, on consumer use of massage. These are linked here to a study commissioned by the Yoga Journal on the growth of the Yoga industry. All three fields show substantial to explosive growth. The Integrator compares data on coaching incomes with what we see from surveys and statements related to massage therapists, acupuncturists and naturopathic doctors. The numbers aren't pretty for the professions that have entrance requirements which involve significant student loan debt...
Link
Income for Naturopathic Physicians: Data from AANMC Survey
The Association of Accredited Naturopathic Medical Colleges (AANMC) recently released data from a 2004 survey of the roughly 2500 licensed naturopathic physicians then practicing in North America. The AANMC attributed the wide spectrum of net incomes to "personal choice and values/priorities." Still, 98% of respondents showed satisfaction with their career choices. Most NDs do not have the opportunity to be employed and must develop their practice from scratch. An increasing number are in multi-disciplinary settings. A major short-coming of the portrait, however, is the response rate. Only 583 (19%) took part. How many of the non-responders couldn't make the shift from medical student to self-marketer and dropped out, despite student loan debt frequently at $100,000+? The Integrator compares this data with those on MD income published by the Medical Group Management Association.
Link
ACCAHC: Historic, Multi-Disciplinary CAM Educator Project Announces Grant, Exec Change, Dues-Basis and Move to Independence
In early 2004, a new entity emerged on the integrated healthcare scene, the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC). In the ensuing three years under the direction of Pamela Snider, ND, ACCAHC has made significant strides in the areas of education, research and policy as an action-oriented multi-disciplinary project. Born and nurtured as part of the 501c4 Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC), ACCAHC is now taking steps toward its independence as a stand-alone, dues-based and grant-supported 501c3 entity. This article notes ACCAHC accomplishments, an executive director transition and plans for a $30,000 grant from the organization's founding backer, Lucy Gonda. For more on ACCAHC, go to www.ihpc.info and click on ACCAHC.
Link
Major Blue Cross Blue Shield Savings from CAM-Oriented Primary Care Provider Program to be Published in JMPT
In 1999, Integrator sponsor Alternative Medicine Integration Group (AMI) began a unique project through HMO Illinois, a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan. Chiropractic doctors originally served as the project's only primary care providers (PCPs) inside a broader network of conventional medical doctors. AMI has since added some integrative MDs and osteopaths to its PCP panel. The Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics recently accepted for publication a report on seven years and 70,274 member months of AMI experience with BCBS. Utilization data on hospital admissions, lengths of stay, pharmaceutical costs and outpatient surgeries were all between 59% and 85% less than the utilization by the HMO's typical population accessing care through conventional PCPs. This is the second JMPT publication on the project, but the first in which outcomes of other CAM-oriented PCPs are reported.
Link
Will "Integration Light" by Competing Hospitals Kill Cancer Treatment Centers of America's Plans for an Inpatient Facility?
Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) wants to build a 24 bed inpatient facility in the greater Seattle area. But CTCA's application for a Certificate of Need (CON) from the State of Washington Department of Health (DOH) has been twice denied. CTCA, known nationally for its pioneering, integrated cancer treatment, argued that its multi-disciplinary, fully-integrative approach was not available elsewhere in the region. Yet, on review of web-based materials from a list of competing hospitals, the DOH denied CTCA's claim. The Integrator approached this article as a Seattle-area consumer. First, CTCA's deeply integrated web presence is explored. Then we visit websites of the competing hospitals the DOH cited as claiming "comprehensive" or "integrated" programs. Do you agree with the DOH's finding? Might the marketing of integration be an over-statement? Which of these reflect action in your own hospitals. Take a look. Then you decide whether CTCA's plans, and patient choice, are being limited by "integration light?"
Link
The Integrator is made possible through sponsorships from NCMIC, Triad Healthcare, Standard Process, Alternative Medicine Integration Group, Health Practitioners Online and individuals who voluntarily contribute.
Upcoming Events for Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College, Berkeley, CA
See:
http://www.aimc.edu/continuingeducation
http://www.aimc.edu/admissions/index.html
March 30–April 1, 2007: Japanese Acupuncture: Explorations in Meridian Therapy, w/ Stephen Brown, LAc (24 CEUs pending). LAc's $400 ($350 if registered by 3/16), AOM Students $300 ($250 if registered by 3/16). Location: Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College, Berkeley, California. To register, contact Admissions & Program Director Nellie Wilson: 510/ 666-8248 x106, continuing-ed@aimc.edu, or go to Acupuncture Continuing Education.
April 11, 2007: Acupuncture Admissions Tour & Info Session - 6 pm Wednesday Location: Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College, Berkeley, California. To register, contact Admissions & Program Director Nellie Wilson: 510/ 666-8248 x106, admissions@aimc.edu, or go to Acupuncture School Admissions.
April 14–15, 2007: Effective Weight Management Strategies and Treatment of Gastrointestinal Diseases, w/ Jim Cross, ND LAc (15 CEUs approved) LAc's $300 ($240 if registered by 2/23), AOM Students $250 ($200 if registered by 2/23). Location: Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College, Berkeley, California. To register, contact Admissions & Program Director Nellie Wilson: 510/ 666-8248 x106, continuing-ed@aimc.edu, or go to Acupuncture Continuing Education.
April 21, 2007: Acupuncture Admissions Tour & Info Session - 10 am Saturday Location: Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College, Berkeley, California. To register, contact Admissions & Program Director Nellie Wilson: 510/ 666-8248 x106, admissions@aimc.edu, or go to Acupuncture School Admissions.
April 25, 2007: Acupuncture Admissions Tour & Info Session - 6 pm Wednesday Location: Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College, Berkeley, California. To register, contact Admissions & Program Director Nellie Wilson: 510/ 666-8248 x106, admissions@aimc.edu, or go to Acupuncture School Admissions.
April 21–22, 2007: Beyond Integrative Medicine: The Path of Knowledge, Intuition, and Wisdom, w/ Isaac Eliaz, MD, HMD, MS, LAc (12 CEUs approved) LAc's $300 ($240 if registered by 2/23), AOM Students $250 ($200 if registered by 2/23). Location: Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College, Berkeley, California. To register, contact Admissions & Program Director Nellie Wilson: 510/ 666-8248 x106, continuing-ed@aimc.edu, or go to Acupuncture Continuing Education.
Letter to the Editor
Sometimes, understanding one’s background can clarify their particular point of view. So in the spirit of “full disclosure” I would like to tell you a little about mine.
I began my medical career in 1979 when I received my MD degree from Albany Medical College. I trained in diagnostic radiology at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC. I entered private practice and spent 20 years doing full-service hospital radiology. It was at the end of these 20 years that changes occurred in my life, changes that made me look at my direction and commitments. It was at that time in my career when I discovered acupuncture, and the power this medicine has to heal. Please understand, I was awestruck at the conditions acupuncture could effectively treat ---- conditions that from my previous medical training I knew were precisely those no one wanted to get stuck with because there was no effective treatment. I am a fellowship-trained interventional radiologist, and I have put needles into arteries, veins, solid organs, abscesses, tumors, pleural cavities, peritoneal cavities….you name it. But I had never felt the pull of Qi on a needle, I had never intentionally manipulated a needle to achieve a specific energetic effect, I had never contacted the energy of a meridian, nor used needles themselves, as instruments of healing. Here was a whole new science to learn. And the amazing thing is that it has a 3000 year history with millions upon millions of people undergoing clinical trial in China for 30 centuries!
So I enrolled in a course for physicians to learn “medical acupuncture”. I attended two weekend sessions, watched videotapes, and read one book. This course was based on the work of one physician. The book we read was his book - the videotapes we listened to were him talking, and he gave nearly all of the lectures at the 2 weekends of instruction. On the last day of training, I happened to be sitting next to a doctor from San Diego, and I overheard him say, “My wife knows so much more about acupuncture than I do.”
I subsequently found out this doctor’s wife was a licensed acupuncturist. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was enrolled at the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon in a Master’s degree program in Classical Chinese Medicine. I will graduate from this same program in June. It is a 4-year program, and I have been able to complete it in 3 years by transferring credits from my medical school training. I feel very strongly that, in order to practice acupuncture at the level of competency which this medicine deserves, one must learn from many professors, observe with many clinical supervisors, and spend at least a few years to learn how to approach a patient in a holistic way with an entirely new set of diagnostic principles.
Remember, I am a scientist at heart, and this is the finest science that I have encountered. As a physician who has gone through Western medical training and now training in acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, I assure you that abbreviated courses in acupuncture for physicians pose a serious problem. That problem has to do with efficacy of treatment. Without a comprehensive education in the fundamentals of this science, and without appropriate hours spent in learning complex needling techniques, followed by supervised clinical application of all of this learning, it is not possible to effectively treat the list of diseases which the world now recognizes are amenable to acupuncture intervention.
The World Health Organization recognizes the ability of acupuncture to treat the following diseases: asthma, menstrual cramps, arthritis, sciatica, TMJ problems, allergies, anxiety, depression, bladder problems, kidney problems, childhood illness, colds, influenza, cough, bronchitis, constipation, diarrhea, dizziness, ear-nose & throat disorders, fatigue, gynecological disorders, genital herpes, herpetic neuralgia, heart palpitations, immune system deficiency, infertility, insomnia, numbness, poor circulation, PMS, sexual dysfunction, impotence, skin problems, stress-related illnesses, and weight gain or weight loss…and the list goes on.
Acupuncture is not a nice, short topic that can be covered during a seminar lasting for a few weekends. Suffice it to say, that it is not possible to treat the difficult diseases listed above after watching videotapes, reading one textbook, and attending two weekends of lecture with needling practice on a few other course participants.
I would like to give you a brief case presentation now, to try to illustrate in a nutshell why I am writing this letter. A 57 year old man presented 4 days earlier to the OHSU emergency room with sudden and complete blindness in his right eye. He was seen by an ophthalmologist, underwent carotid ultrasound, an MRI of his brain and MRI angiography , and was told that he had occlusion of his central retinal artery and would have permanent loss of vision in that eye. At the time of presentation his medications included lisinopril, metformin, and aspirin. Fortunately, the patient happened to have an appointment with his chiropractor, who heard the story of this man’s sudden blindness and grim prognosis, and referred the patient to the acupuncture practitioner who worked in the same building. The patient was seen daily for 7 consecutive days for acupuncture treatment. On the second day, he could see a small circle of light in the center of his vision in the blind eye. Day by day that circle of light enlarged, and became clearer. At the end of 7 treatments he had 20/40 vision in the previously blind eye.
This is the power of this medicine in the hands of a skilled practitioner. This is what can be accomplished in Oriental Medicine. Someone in Integrative Medicine has given me a definition of their subspecialty as the medicine that “fills in the gaps”. I think this is an apt definition, and there are many gaps in western medicine which need filling. Please give Oriental Medicine a chance by ensuring that practitioners who enter this field are adequately trained. Let’s up the ante, and see whether we can embrace this amazing alternative healing science with practitioners who have enough didactic hours of lecture from a variety of acupuncture faculty, and enough supervised hours of clinical practice so that they are familiar with treating patients with all sorts of maladies such as cancer, asthma, palpitations, constipation, allergies, menstrual disorders….to name just a few common problems.
The way forward has been paved by the state of Hawaii. Hawaii requires that medical doctors be trained and tested for competency prior to administering acupuncture to patients. The Attorney General for the state of Hawaii issued a statement on August 18, 2003, declaring that “medical acupuncture” as performed by physicians is not substantially different from any other type of acupuncture, and therefore, physicians performing “medical acupuncture” should be subject to the same laws of licensure and proof of competency as everyone else.
We in the acupuncture field are at a crossroads. We can condone physicians doing acupuncture under-trained, unsupervised, unevaluated in terms of competency, or we can strive to raise the standard. I feel strongly that this is a public health issue. I feel strongly that allowing medical doctors with minimal training & without oversight by a non-professional organization is a dangerous and foolhardy policy. I’d like to respectfully remind you that we are talking here about a healthcare profession; we are talking about peoples’ health & well-being; we cannot afford to have a double standard. The general public deserves parity in licensing so that competency can be maintained.
I therefore propose that the American Association of Medical Acupuncture evaluate their own training programs and consider complying with the World Health Organization’s recommendations of 1500 hours of training in acupuncture for physicians interested in pursuing this medicine. The WHO standards for physicians performing “medical acupuncture” include 1000 hours of didactic (including needling technique labs) and 500 hours of supervised clinical training, which ensures adequate training for entry level acupuncture. In addition, I feel that physicians should be required to pass the NCCAOM examinations to ensure their competency in acupuncture evaluation and treatment. If the AAMA is willing to adopt these standards of 1500 hours and NCCAOM testing, I believe the future of “medical acupuncture” in the United States would be shifted from a position of tenuous efficacy to one of competency and powerful healing.
Dr. Marilyn M. Walkey MD, MSOM candidate 2007, DAOM candidate 2009
March 9, 2007
Clinical Master Tung's Acupuncture
Lecture by Robert Chu, LAc, QME, PhD
NEW DATES - Saturday and Sunday, March 31- April 1, 2007, 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. – 15 CEUs Approved
Learn the essentials of the Master Tung Acupuncture system, with the proper principles and concepts that made Master Tung Taiwan's greatest Acupuncturist in the last generation. Students and practitioners will be taught the most essential points to use in the clinic for commonly seen problems. Point location and hands on practice will be a part of this class.
Please bring your own needles and alcohol preps!
On Day One, students and practitioners will be taught the principles of Master Tung's Acupuncture, followed by Master Tung's top 18 points, then move Into Neuromusculoskeletal disorders. On Day Two, a discussion of Tung's points for Internal Medicine problems and making the transition from diagnosing from TCM to Master Tung's system will be addressed.
8:30 a.m. registration at:
Sheraton LaGuardia East
135-20 39th Ave.
Flushing, NY 11354
Tel: 718-460-6666
Fax: 718-460-0254
Seating is limited!
Fee: $325/2 days, students $250/2 days, $25 discount for early registration by March 1, 2007, No refunds
Call 626 487-1815 to register
Let us close this issue of the Qi-Unity Report with perspectives on unity.
“I still believe America’s destiny is to become a living testament to what free human beings can accomplish by acting in unity.”
-Senator John Kerry
“So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.”
Baha'u'llah (Iranian Theologian and Philosopher, b.1817. Whose name means "The Glory of God" in Arabic)
“Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking”
-Mahatma Gandhi
“Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.”
-John Muir
“Sometimes we talked about the nature of the human soul and about the Cosmic Unity of souls that I had believed in so firmly when I was 15 years old. My mother did not like the phrase Cosmic Unity. It was too pretentious. She preferred to call it a world soul.”
-Freeman Dyson
“What ever beauty may be, it has for its basis order, and for its essence unity.”
-Father Andre
As family and friends, as practitioners and healers, as leaders in our communities and as the purveyors of life for future generations, let us unite in spirit, act and deed as living peace in our world.
Sincerely,
Rebekah Christensen,
Executive Director