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.
Fred Lerner, DC, PhD, FACO
Dr. Fred Lerner graduated summa cum laude from Los Angeles College of Chiropractic in 1979 and earned his PhD in electromedical sciences from City University of Los Angeles in 1985. He is board certified in chiropractic orthopedics and maintains a private practice specializing in chiropractic, electromedicine and distress disorders.
Although a great deal of Dr. Lerner's professional training is related to chiropractic, he is nevertheless quite familiar with the practice of acupuncture. Since 1993, he has served as chair of the National Board of Acupuncture Orthopedics. He is also an associate professor at American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco, California, and has designed and conducted numerous certification programs in acupuncture orthopedics for licensed acupuncturists.