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.
Yen-Nien (Jason) Hou, PharmD, RPh, Dipl. OM, LAc
Dr. Yen Nien (Jason) Hou is a pharmacist, TCM herbalist, and coordinator of the herb information center at the Integrative Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He holds a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from The State University of New York (SUNY), School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; and completed a Postgraduate Year 1 community pharmacy residency, both in Buffalo, N.Y. He received a Master of Science degree from the New York College of Traditional Chinese Medicine.