NOMAA to Petition Dept. of Education for National Recognition
The National Oriental Medicine Accreditation Agency (NOMAA) has announced it will submit an application to the Department of Education for recognition as an accrediting body. NOMAA will officially petition the department for initial recognition at a meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity in Arlington, Va. in June.
Currently, the Accreditation Commission of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine is the only national accrediting body recognized by the Department of Education in the field of Oriental medicine. ACAOM is recognized as an accrediting agency for schools and programs that offer first-professional master's degree and professional master's-level certificate and diploma programs in acupuncture and Oriental medicine. NOMAA's petition, on the other hand, is for recognition as an accrediting agency for institutions and programs that offer entry-level professional doctoral degrees in Oriental medicine.
According to the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, for accrediting agencies to be recognized by the Secretary of Education, they must demonstrate that they are considered "reliable authorities regarding the quality of education or training offered by the institutions or programs they accredit." Agencies also must demonstrate that their accreditation standards and policies are widely accepted in the U.S. by educators and educational institutions, licensing bodies, practitioners and employers in their particular field.
Upon reviewing NOMAA's petition, the National Advisory Committee will submit its recommendations to the Secretary of Education for further action. Interested parties are encouraged to contact NOMAA via the agency's Web site (www.nomaa.org) for more information.
World-Renowned Author, Lecturer Joins Santa Barbara College of Oriental Medicine
The Santa Barbara College of Oriental Medicine has announced that Giovanni Maciocia, one of Europe's most highly respected practitioners and the author of several textbooks on Chinese medicine, has joined the college as its curriculum development director. He also will serve as a member of the school's clinical and academic faculty, bringing more than 30 years of experience as a writer and educator.
"Giovanni represents the highest standards in academic and clinical excellence," said Dr. JoAnn Tall, Santa Barbara's president. "His partnership with SBCOM supports our 25-year commitment to innovation and quality of education and care in the field of Oriental medicine."
"I have always been struck by the enthusiasm and professionalism of American practitioners of Chinese medicine," added Maciocia. "I greatly look forward to working with SBCOM to further develop the college and their teaching, and to spending more time teaching American audiences."
Mr. Maciocia is a 1974 graduate of the International College of Oriental Medicine, and has operated a practice in England since that time. In 1977, he graduated from the National Institute of Medical Herbalists; in 1996, he was appointed visiting professor of the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, one of China's foremost teaching institutions. In addition to his writings and lectures, he has produced more than 70 herbal formulas designed to treat common ailments and gynecological conditions.
ACTCM Receives Approval to Offer Doctoral Program
The American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine has announced that its doctoral program has received approval from the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, making it the first acupuncture school in northern California to have its doctoral program receive approval from both agencies. The program will be offered at the college's San Francisco campus, and is set to begin in October 2006.
ACTCM's doctoral program is a clinically based professional program that emphasizes an integrated approach to patient health, with specializations in pain management and women's health. The program will be offered in four-day modules that meet once a month, and will require approximately two years for completion. Clinical training will be provided at the ACTCM campus, along with off-site facilities at the Osher Center for Integrated Medicine and California Pacific Center. In addition, the program's clinical component will include "capstone" projects for students, which will be published by ACTCM and contribute to traditional Chinese medical literature. Graduates of the program will be awarded a Doctorate of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (DAOM) degree.
For more information on ACTCM's doctoral program and admission requirements, visit www.actcm.edu or call (415) 282-7600, ext. 14.
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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