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.
Jack Miller, President, PCOM
Jack Miller is the president of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. He is a licensed acupuncturist with a master's degree in education from San Diego State University. He was the vice-president of CCAOM and the chairperson of its post-graduate doctoral committee for 10 years as they established standards for the DAOM.