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.
Hyungsuk Choi, PhD, KMD, LAc
Dr. Hyungsuk Choi has studied traditional Korean medicine at the renowned Kyung Hee University. He received his PhD in integrative medicine from Cha University. Dr. Choi has numerous publications in peer-reviewed medical journals and continues to work as a university researcher in the South Korean public health care sector.