Medical Acupuncture: A Passport to Better Health

I became a medical acupuncturist in 1995. Almost 23 years have gone by since I was trained by Joseph M. Helms. MD, FAAMA. I am very proud to be a member of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture (AAMA) and have served as president of this distinguished society. As Editor-in-Chief of Medical Acupuncture for nearly 23 years, I am honored to work with my colleagues, not only in the AAMA but also in the international acupuncture community.

Surprisingly, I encounter many trained acupuncture colleagues who acquired these fascinating skills and ended up not practicing acupuncture. There are a multitude of reasons and barriers. Some clinicians fail to integrate acupuncture into their practices, thinking that it must be separate from their existing patient care. Other clinicians find the techniques to be tedious and that results are not immediate and are disappointing to both patients and themselves.

Erik K. Koda, MD, MPH, recently published an article in The Annals of Family Practice entitled “Fully Integrating Medical Acupuncture into Family Medicine.”¹ I would like to summarize the highlights of his article. He stated that the traditional acupuncture training encourages encounters lasting more than 60 minutes. Dr. Koda explained that, for the last 4 years, he has completely integrated acupuncture into his family medicine clinic, seeing ∼20 patients daily, with an average of 5 patients receiving acupuncture as part of their visits. Once, he treated a maximum of 30 patients with 14 acupuncture treatments in 1 day. In his model, patients are given equal treatment choices, such as medications, referrals, injections, or acupuncture. If patients decide on acupuncture, it is performed at the same visit as well as during follow-ups.”¹

In his Neighborhood Healthcare practice in California, Dr. Koda's template has not changed and actually offers more appointments than the 9 other family medicine providers in that practice. He feels that traditional acupuncture training relies on time-consuming Eastern diagnostic methods. In his clinic, evaluation begins with a Western diagnosis. Consent is signed prior to the first treatment. If patients choose acupuncture, a rapid technique is used, and needles are placed in 5–10 minutes. His productivity is 0.25 more patients more per hour than his peers.¹

Battlefield Acupuncture is just one of the rapid treatments I have introduced and was the catalyst that led to a $5.4-million award to train thousands of healthcare providers in the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration healthcare systems.² There is a demand for other rapid acupuncture courses from my military medical acupuncture colleagues. In fact, the Air Force Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine Center, at Joint Base Andrews, teaches a specialized course called Rapid Acupuncture for Military Physicians. By request, medical acupuncturists at Brooks Army Medical Center, in San Antonio, TX, will be taught specific, rapid, Air Force acupuncture techniques in early September 2018 by me.

Many physicians in practice have inquired if there are limited acupuncture courses available. They argue that, if, for example, a physician wishes to incorporate sigmoidoscopy into a practice, attending a short, approved training course allows that physician to incorporate this skill without becoming board-certified in gastroenterology. Physicians asking about limited acupuncture courses do not wish to become acupuncturists but desire to learn 1 or 2 acupuncture techniques that would be useful in their clinical practices. This will be a challenge in the future as acupuncture becomes more recognized in mainstream medicine. Perhaps a restrictive license may be the answer. I would like to hear from the readership regarding this challenge. Many years ago, the interest in acupuncture in the medical community was rather low. Times have changed—and so has the practice of medicine. Perhaps acupuncture is a “passport to better health”; however, some physicians may wish a limited “visa” to practice it.