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.
Susan Padberg, MD, FAAMA
Susan Padberg practiced Family Medicine for 11 years. She retrained in medical acupuncture in 1999, and recently retired after 17 years of practicing acupuncture in Madison, Wisconsin.