Call for Comments on Draft Standards for Doctoral Programs
The Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACAOM) has put out a call for public comment on its "Draft Standards for First Professional Doctoral Programs in AOM." The proposed requirements are a comprehensive set of accreditation standards that would focus on institutional, program and student learning outcomes expected of first professional doctoral programs.
The ACAOM established a Doctoral Task Force to develop these standards. The Task Force is composed of representatives of the national AOM organizations, including the American Association of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, the Federation of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine Regulatory Agencies, the Council of Colleges of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, the National Federation of Chinese TCM Organizations and the World Federation of TCM Societies.
A copy of the proposed standards may be found by clicking here. After reading the proposed requirements, you can log in and give your comments by going to: www.acaom.info. Individuals who wish to issue public comment must do so no later than Nov. 30, 2007.
PCOM Offers Online Lecture CEU
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine is now offering more than 40 online lectures by some of the most prominent speakers in the field today. Currently, 31 CEUs have been approved by the California Acupuncture Board for this particular activity. Speakers include:
Additionally, lectures by well-known Acupuncture Today columnists John Chen, Jake Fratkin, Felice Dunas and Darrel Starwynn are available for download. Many of these speakers will also be presenting at the upcoming 2007 Pacific Symposium in San Diego from Nov. 8-11.
In order to obtain online CEUs, listen to the lecture, take a brief quiz to show an understanding of the key concepts of each lecture, and submit the quiz for approval of CEUs. Each lecture is worth between one and two CEUs apiece. Lectures can be accessed from any computer, at any time. Lectures can be accessed here. CEUs are $20 each and can be purchased through the online store or through the Director of Continuing Education.
Renji Cup Awarded to Dr. David Moloney
The Renji Cup for Contribution to Traditional Chinese Medicine, awarded for work advancing Chinese Medicine worldwide, was given to David Molony, DOM, earlier this year in Beijing. The award was presented at the People's Hall at Tianamin Square in a ceremony attended by the top doctors in China, along with representatives from the Ministry of Health and the Congress of the People's Republic.
Dr. Molony was awarded the Renji Cup for his contributions as executive director of the AAOM for almost a decade. He has traveled to universities and conferences speaking about and demonstrating Chinese medicine. He has worked in his home state of Pennsylvania to pass legislation to expand scope of practice and remove restrictions that interfered with patients' access to acupuncture. Internationally, he was an observer at the Milan, Italy meeting of the World Health Organization expert committee for development of educational requirements for acupuncture.
Upon receiving the award, Molony said, "I have been blessed to have such wonderful people helping me and letting me help them, to advance my chosen profession worldwide. ... Together, we have all helped this field of medicine evolve into the most respected complimentary or integrative branch of medicine in the world. I will continue to do my best to help its progress at every level."
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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