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.
Amanda Gaitaud, LAc, Dipl. OM
Amanda Gaitaud received her Master's of Science from PCOM. She's currently completing the final requirement to receive her DAOM. As vice president of the AAAOM Amanda was involved with both the burden of debt survey and analysis.