New Board Member at NCCAOM
Bryn Clark, Dipl.Ac., CH, has been appointed to serve on the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine's (NCCAOM) board of commissioners. Mr. Clark replaces David Boyd, Dipl.Ac.,CH, who resigned earlier this year due to work-related duties.
"Bryn has a long history of volunteering his time and expertise on various NCCAOM task forces and committees," commented NCCAOM board Chair Daniel Jiao, Dipl.Ac., CH. "He is an excellent addition to the board."
Mr. Clark received a master's degree in acupuncture from the Traditional Acupuncture Institute in Laurel, Md. (now the Tai Sophia Institute) and is a lecturer at Tai Sophia and the Academy for Five-Element Acupuncture in Hallandale, Fla. He is a current member of the Acupuncture Society of Massachusetts and the past president of the Acupuncture Society of Pennsylvania.
"I am deeply honored to serve on the NCCAOM board during this dynamic time when the profession is expanding and is increasingly in the public eye," Mr. Clark said upon his appointment.
Mr. Clark's term on the board runs through January 2004.
Ruling Lets Acupuncture Schools Enter a New "Domain"
In February, the Commerce Department approved the expansion of the ".edu" Internet domain to nationally accredited postsecondary institutions that provide specialized training in health services, education, technology, and other professions. The decision means that all schools accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACAOM) may now use the .edu domain, and gives these schools the same online standing as most colleges and universities.
"This expansion will allow a broad segment of postsecondary education providers to benefit from the immediate recognition of the .edu tag on an Internet address," said Mark Luker, vice president of Educause, a university technology consortium that manages the .edu domain.
One of the original seven Internet domains, .edu was set up in 1985 and originally reserved for four-year colleges and universities. In 2001, the .edu rules were expanded to allow their use by community colleges.
The new .edu rules go into effect on April 15, 2003. For more information, visit www.educause.edu/edudomain.
Bastyr Founder, Associate Dean Picked to Serve on Medicare Committee
Drs. Joseph Pizzorno, co-founder and president emeritus of Bastyr University, and Pamela Snider, the university's associate dean of public and professional affairs, have been selected to serve on the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee (MCAC), a group chartered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The two were appointed to MCAC by Thomas Scully, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
"These appointments are part of a promising trend," enthused Dr. Pizzorno. "Every opportunity for complementary and alternative medicine and conventional medicine to work together translates to a greater potential for solving our health care problems." Dr. Pizzorno previously served as a member of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy in 2001 and 2002.
"The staggering number of individuals with chronic disease is a significant contributing factor in skyrocketing health care costs, amounting to a national disease debt," added Dr. Snider. "By devoting resources to the prevention of these diseases, and to health promotion for all communities, we will be able to better serve other health concerns, such as reducing costs. CAM's history of incorporating prevention in its practice and philosophy will be of benefit as we work together to solve the complex problems of health care."
A total of 100 individuals serve on the MCAC, representing a rich mixture of experts from all areas of health care. The committee meets approximately once a month, and is charged with advising the Centers on effective and appropriate health care services that are covered by Medicare or are eligible for Medicare coverage.
Acupuncture Program Approved at New York Chiropractic College
New York Chiropractic College (NYCC) has received approval from the state's Board of Regents to establish upstate New York's first Master of Science programs in acupuncture and Oriental medicine.
NYCC's new programs will offer coursework leading to MS degrees in acupuncture and acupuncture and Oriental medicine. Graduates will be eligible to take state licensure examinations for the practice of acupuncture.
The college is currently accepting applications for the new programs, which are scheduled to begin in September 2003 with an expected initial class of approximately 40 students. Students will need at least 90 college credit hours to be eligible for enrollment in the master's programs
For undergraduate students who qualify for NYCC's acupuncture program, the college will offer a Bachelor of Professional Studies degree. Open enrollment for the bachelor's program began in January.
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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