A student stands over a patient, needle poised. They have a “perfect” prescription: a textbook combination of points harvested from a lecture slide on chronic lower back pain. But as the needle meets the skin, the student hesitates - the symptom of a quiet habit that has taken hold of our profession. We routinely say we “prescribe” points. It sounds efficient. It echoes the authority of biomedical culture and fits neatly into the insurance field. But vocabulary is never neutral; repeated long enough, it dictates behavior.
Healthcare Policy and Functional Medicine
Bill Reddy, LAc, Dipl. Ac.
Bill Reddy serves on the editorial boards of four national peer-reviewed medical journals, and has supported the AOM profession on a state and national level. He is the owner/operator of Vital Point Acupuncture clinic in Annandale, Va. For more information, visit www.BillReddy.com.
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Co-Author: Amy Mager, DACM, LAc, Dipl. OM (NCCAOM), FABORM