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.
Michael Jabbour, MS, LAc
Michael Jabbour speaks on technology, medicine and politics pertaining to traditional Chinese medicine. He is one of the founding directors of the New York State Acupuncture Coalition and the current president of the Acupuncture Society of New York, and chairs the AAAOM Medical Integration committee. He maintains a private acupuncture and herbology practice in midtown Manhattan.