AAMA
Newsletter
Serving the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture
May 2001

Member News

    As awareness of medical acupuncture grows, Alison Lee, MD, is getting many requests to talk about Chinese medicine and related topics. And while she often gives up to two hours to do all this, the time pressure is on. In March, she lectured to second-year medical students on acupuncture and Chinese medicine, including herbs, nutrition, Tai Chi and Qi Gong. They also requested case presentations. Since all that had to be covered in 50 minutes, it was an action-filled lecture.
    In April, Dr. Lee spoke to members of the Anesthesia Department, OR and recovery room nurses at North Oakland Medical Center in Pontiac, MI. This was an even faster ride, since they requested all that same information in 40 minutes. It's a challenge for Dr. Lee to make clear, useful points from the long history of Chinese medicine in the ever-shortening periods of time the practices and educational settings allow. However, she said it's "gratifying to see the large audience interest, especially in more mainstream settings."
    The 2001 International Council of Medical Acupuncture and Related Techniques Symposium will be held in Berlin, Germany June 14-17. The theme is Acupuncture in Modern Health Care. Co-hosts are the German Medical Acupuncture Association, celebrating its 50th anniversary, and the German Association for Acupuncture and Neural Therapy, celebrating its 30th anniversary. Registration details may be obtained on the website: hakp.de/icmart2001. E-mail: info@hakp.de, or visit: icmart.org.
    AAMA immediate past president Bryan L. Frank, MD, DABMA, and new President Marshall H. Sager, DO, DABMA, will present at ICMART. The Academy is scheduled to be inducted as a member of ICMART, which unifies about 50 medical acupuncture societies in eastern and western Europe, as well as Canada, Japan and Brazil. Dr. Frank will present lectures on advanced diagnosis and therapy through auricular medicine and on advanced approaches to the treatment of pain. Dr. Sager will present legislative updates on American medical acupuncture.
    Drs. Angelica Fargas-Babjak and Alejandro Elorriaga will instruct these courses at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada: Medical Acupuncture for Health Professionals (220 CME hours, five sessions), Auricular Seminar with Bryan Frank, MD, (16 hours, Oct. 20-21), Contemporary Acupuncture for Sports Injuries (24 CME hours, summer and winter sessions) and TCM seminars (68 hours, three units). The five-unit course is accredited by AMA PRA Category 1 for 126 hours in Category 1 credit towards the Physician's Recognition Award and by College of Family Physicians of Canada for 126 MAINPRO-M1 credits. Homework is eligible for 94 hours of M2 credits. Call 905/521-2100, x75175 or visit the website: acupuncturecourses.com.
AAMA is sponsoring a three-hour, seven-video workshop on CraigPENS by William Craig, MD, and Stephen Taylor, DO. Tapes can be purchased for $500 by getting an order form from the Academy.
    Members participating in AAMA's referral program will be happy to hear that 476 inquiries came into national headquarters in January, 569 in February and (due to increased publicity) 4,138 in March 2001 from patients seeking medical acupuncturists. The toll-free number patients are calling for referrals is 800/521-2262.
    Practice members (associate and full) who are not participating in the patient referral program but would like to, need to notify AAMA by mail (4929 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 428, Los Angeles, CA 90010) or by e-mail (spc6@pacbell.net). If you are not sure whether or not you are already signed up for this program, check the patient referral listing on the public area of: medicalacupuncture.org.
    Members are asked to encourage their peers to take the next UCLA Medical Acupuncture for Physicians May 31-June 3, 2001 (with an optional clinical intensive June 4 for $380). Offering up to 300 CME hours, the course costs $5,200. Clinical experience is offered Oct. 9-19 in Nantucket, MA (additional $400); Oct. 26-Nov. 4 in Boca Raton, FL; Dec. 7-16 in Las Vegas and Jan. 4-13, 2002 in Santa Monica, CA. The cost for taking pain management and primary care pathways or for graduates is $2,600. For more details and a brochure, contact Helms Medical Institute (510/649-8488, mafp@excite.com)
    Ravi Ramaswami, MD, who was a speaker at AAMA's Pan Pacific Acupuncture Conference in Las Vegas last fall, was recently on RNN TV where he was the featured guest on the health show, "Living Well." The show was about acupuncture and integrating it into a medical practice.
F. Kennedy Gordon, MD, recently contributed information about acupuncture and sports medicine for the article, "Acupuncture: A powerful pain-reliever for athletes." To read it, visit the website: NBCi.com, click on Health, Fitness and then Article Archives.
    Licensed physicians who have completed an organized primary acupuncture course of at least 200 hours and have 300 or more total hours of training are eligible to make application to the American Board of Medical Acupuncture to sit for the examination. Thus, physicians may sit for the exam soon after their training, or they may wait, depending on their preference. The other components of certification include two years of practice after the initial training program with at least 500 cases, and three professional physician references. The affidavit of experience and references may be submitted after they are completed. Applicants should not attest to completion of two years of practice until they have actually completed the time after their training.
    John H. Black, MD, DABMA, of Indianapolis, was inadvertently omitted from members listed in the last AAMA Newsletter recently approved for Board Certification.
    If you have acupuncture privileges at a hospital and have not notified AAMA, fax your name, hospital, city and state to 323/937-0959 to be added to our list. You can see if you're already listed at: medicalacupuncture.org. If you need a hospital privileges credentialing package, call 323/937-5514 (or download from website).
    AAMA Vice President Wendy Page-Echols, DO, is revising the Academy's lecture presentation available for purchase. Members with corrections, suggestions and pictures of themselves performing acupuncture all will receive credit on CD-ROM and slides. Send comments to: page4@pilotmsu.eduand photos to her at 2025 Abbott Road, #100, East Lansing, MI 48823.
Courses offering 15 hours CEU have been announced by instructor Bob Flaws: Secrets of Pulse Diagnosis June 2-3 in Minneapolis and again Sept. 29-30 in Phoenix, and Treating Mental-Emotional Conditions with Chinese Medicine Nov. 17-18 in San Francisco. Call 800/448-8372 for details.
    The World Federation of Acupuncture-Moxibustion Societies will host the 2001 International Symposium on Acupuncture at the International Convention & Exhibition Centre in Singapore Dec. 7-9, 2001. Singapore Chinese Physicians' Association/Chinese Acupuncture Research Institution is organizing the event, which has abstract and early registration deadlines of Aug. 31. For details, call 011 (65) 299 8992 or e-mail: ctmapl@singnet.com.sg.
Physicians, please be aware that every three years after you're approved as a practice member (associate or full), you need to attend 50 CME/CEU hours or more of acupuncture-related training to maintain your AAMA practice membership status. Call the Academy (323/937-5514) if you have questions about this requirement.
    Jeffrey D. Kauffman, MD, will teach, Five Element Acupuncture 2001: Blending it into Your Medical Practice, Aug. 17-20, Sept. 14-17 and Oct. 19-22. Also offered is, Five Element Acupuncture 2001: Advanced (Aug. 11-14, Sept. 8-11 and Oct. 13-16). Fee is $5,000 for each course (three four-day weekends). Call 916/488-8454.
    The National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine will meet at the Neuroscience Conference Center in Rockville, MD May 31-June 1, and Aug. 27-28, 2001. For details, call 888/644-6226 or visit the website: nccam.nih.gov.
    International Association for Auricular Medicine seeks practitioners to join and advance the practice and science of auricular medicine. IAAM offers international conferences and Coherence: The Journal of Integrated Medicine. Annual membership is $50 and includes the journal (two issues). Contact Dr. John Ackerman (who attended part of AAMA's Symposium in New Orleans) at 805/682-1011 or e-mail: IAAM@iveg.nl. Coherence will print or reprint articles pertaining to auricular medicine and auricular therapy. Persons with articles to be considered can contact Dr. Ackerman or IAAM.
    Members are reminded that they cannot use the AAMA logo without prior written consent. They can, however, use the words, "member of AAMA," on business cards and stationery.
    Editor Richard Niemtzow, MD, seeks articles for Medical Acupuncture. See submission guidelines on any journal inside cover.
AAMA Newsletter welcomes news: bdortberg@aol.com.

Chapter News

Colorado
    Rocky Mountain AAMA Chapter held its second Denver Medical Acupuncture Conference on April 28. Butch Levy, MD, presented Supportive Care for Cancer Patients. He discussed a perspective on etiology and pathogenesis of cancer from the Oriental paradigm. Then he proceeded with acupuncture therapy for ill effects of chemo and radiation therapy, diet and simple formulas for colon, breast and prostate cancer. Participants were awarded three credit hours in Category I of the Physician's Recognition Award. The second Rocky Mountain Chapter meeting was held after the conference.
Delaware Valley
    Delaware Valley and New Jersey Chapters hosted a full-day symposium by Richard Niemtzow, MD, PhD, who told about his extensive experience in treatment of xerostomia, obesity, chronic pain and use of electrical stimulation and piezoelectric stimulation. Two patients with xerostomia were treated, which resulted in improvement.
Oregon
    This Chapter held the first statewide phone conference meeting March 6, 2001. A survey was conducted earlier in which members expressed a desire to expand attendance to members outside of the Portland metropolitan area. The group will continue to meet in person every other month.
The Chapter's Annual Educational Conference will take place Sept. 29, 2001. The topic will likely include acupuncture research and practical clinical applications. Negotiations with the speaker are ongoing.
The Oregon Chapter has a new Secretary/Treasurer, Peter Hanfileti, MD. He replaces Gene Hong, MD, DABMA, who is now president-elect. Robert Gross, MD, continues as president.
Wisconsin
    Under leadership of President Pamela Avery, MD, this is the newest Chapter. Officers include President-elect Joe Blustein, MD, and Secretary-Treasurer Cynthia Bender, MD. To join, send e-mail to: pavery@meriter.com.
This Chapter hosted Michael Smith, MD, DAc (who is part of Dr. Joseph Helms' course video faculty) on Saturday afternoon, May 12 at Meriter Hospital in Madison, WI. Open to AAMA members as well as nonphysician acupuncturists, the informal seminar featured information about the use of auricular acupuncture for substance abuse. Founding chairperson of NADA, Dr. Smith is medical director of the Lincoln Recovery Center in Bronx, NY. This free presentation kicked off the new Chapter.

Acupuncture jumps to new heights down under

    After their successful intervention in Seville 1999 and the 2000 Sidney Olympic games, Drs. Alejandro Elorriaga and Mark Scappaticci repeated tandem in Lisbon at the World Indoor Track & Field Championships 2001, providing their unique combination of electro-acupuncture and soft tissue manipulation to a group of top performance athletes.
    Despite injuries, results included two new world champions, two sub-champions, several finalists and one national record with personal best. Drs. Elorriaga and Scappaticci continue to intrigue the international sports therapies community with the results of their effective Integrated Approach, a combination of electro-acupuncture and soft tissue and joint manipulation for injury management and performance enhancement.
    Fundamentals of this system are taught by both practitioners at McMaster Contemporary Acupuncture for Sports Injuries course, which is offered regularly at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The next course will be June 22-24, 2001.
For more information, contact Valerie Cannon, medical acupuncture course administrator, (905/521-2100, x75175, cannonv@mcmaster.ca).

Medical director sought

    The Department of Family Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center seeks a Board Certified or Board Eligible physician fellowship-trained in integrative medicine for medical director of a new program in conjunction with University of Colorado Hospital. This is a full-time position, with 70% devoted to developing and administering the program and providing direct patient care in the Integrative Medicine Center to be at the new Anschutz Center for Advanced Medicine on the Fitzsimons campus. The remaining 30% time will be devoted to faculty activities. Send current CV and three letters of reference to Mary Jo Bush, Department of Family Medicine, 1180 Clermont St., Denver CO 80220.

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