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.
Paul C. Magarelli, MD, PhD
Paul C. Magarelli, MD, PhD is a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist in private and academic practice. He is owner of Reproductive Medicine & Fertility Centers in Colorado Springs, Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and partner in Corona Institute for Reproductive Medicine & Fertility, Corona, CA. He is associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of New Mexico. He may be contacted at: www.475-baby.com or info@475-baby.com.