AAMA
Newsletter
Serving the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture
February 2001

Page 3

Member News

Check out the redesign of AAMA's website: medicalacupuncture.org. The site is more user-friendly (links on the home page), which makes it easier to navigate. However, please be patient as information and options continue to be added. Some features may be off-line for a short time.

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 President Bryan Frank, MD, and President-Elect Marshall Sager, DO, 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 the following courses at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada: Medical Acupuncture for Health Professionals (220 CME hours, five sessions), Auricular Seminar with Bryan Frank, MD, (Oct. 20-21) and Acupuncture for Sports Injuries (24 CME hours, summer and winter sessions). The five-session course is accredited by AMA 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: www.acupuncturecourses.com.

Dr. Elorriaga will present several workshops at AAMA's 2001 Symposium in which he will demonstrate applications of this modular approach to the design of treatments for common musculoskeletal conditions, sports injuries and chronic articular problems.

Jo Ginder Pal, MD, is looking for a roommate during AAMA's Symposium. If you would like to share his room at Hilton New Orleans Riverside March 22-24, call 757/490-5550.

AAMA's 2000 Symposium was featured in the October premiere issue of a medical newspaper, Holistic Primary Care. Dr. Wen Ching Liu featured some of the MRI’s he showed at the meeting for the article, "Your brain on acupuncture." The December issue featured excerpts from Dr. Ken Conklin's presentation at the Symposium on TCM/dietary adjuncts for patients undergoing chemo/radiation for cancer. Editor Erik Goldman, who attended the AAMA conference, featured more material in February to promote the Symposium in New Orleans.

L.B. Grotte, MD, of Cleveland, Ohio, recently concluded a 12-hour course introducing medical students to the tribal roots of traditional medicines and will begin teaching the second elective on Japanese acupuncture to be offered this year. Studying Oriental medicine for more than 25 years, Dr. Grotte has been offering these courses at Case Western Rerserve University School of Medicine since 1985—the first to be offered at any American medical school. The doctor said students at Case have intense curiosity about traditional medicine. Course descriptions are posted on the website: www.drgrotte.com.

AAMA has a long-term interest in increasing the number of physicians who have training in medical acupuncture since that will lead to them becoming members and to becoming involved in advancing this discipline. To that end, the Board has entered into a collaborative agreement with Joseph Helms, MD, acting on behalf of the UCLA program, to create a program to recognize those individuals who recruit colleagues and others to enroll in the training program. For members identified as having recruited an individual to take the UCLA program, the Academy will provide a coupon valued at $200 that may be used to reduce the cost of Academy meeting registrations or annual dues. At the same time, the individual will receive a coupon from UCLA valued at $200 that can be used to reduce the costs of registration at selected UCLA programs. For more details, contact Executive Administrator James Dowden in Academy offices or Dr. Helms. This is the first such agreement for AAMA. However, it is intended that similar arrangements will be developed with other training programs in North America that meet the Academy’s membership standards for physician training.

The next UCLA Medical Acupuncture for Physicians introductory weekend is 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 (extra $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).

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).

Medical Acupuncture Research Foundation is seeking new Board members. If you are willing to volunteer some time to promote research of medical acupuncture, contact Executive Administrator James Dowden at AAMA headquarters or MARF President James K. Rotchford, MD (kimber@olympus.net).

AAMA received a lot of attention in December after the article, "Acupuncture can work, and it’s not just wishful thinking,” was published in US News & World Report. The article, which ties in JAMA, can be found at: usnews.com/usnews/issue/001218/nycu/acupuncture.htm. Similarly in January, medical acupuncture got a shot in the arm with the article, "Auricular acupuncture found to be significantly anxiolytic,” in the monthly newspaper Anesthesiology News.

Dee Wee Lim, MD, of Moreno Valley, CA, was invited to lecture on acupuncture to UCLA/UCR second-year medical students in February. The theories of acupuncture, the NIH Consensus Statement and the clinical indications were presented. Most of the medical students showed interest in this form of alternative medicine.

Members participating in AAMA's referral program will be happy to hear that 330 inquiries came into national headquarters in November 2000 and 491 in December from patients seeking medical acupuncturists. The toll-free number that patients are calling for referrals is 800/521-2262.

The Academy's PR firm, Fleishman-Hillard, was ranked the "Best PR Firm in Washington, DC," according to the Thomas L. Harris/Impulse Research PR Client Survey. This involves more than 1,900 clients of all PR firms—the largest, most comprehensive survey of its kind.

National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine will meet May 31-June 1 at Natcher Conference Center, NIH in Bethesda, MD and Aug. 27-28 in Neurosciences Building, NIH in Rockville, MD. Visit: www.nccam.nih.gov (which was named one of the "Best 100 Sites for 2001" by Yahoo! Internet Life.

The AAMA Board has embarked on a membership drive. The goal is to go from a membership of 2,000 to 4,000 during the next three years. Gene Hong, MD, is Membership Committee chairman and would like to add members to the committee to help form the plans and carry out the work that will have to be done to make this happen. Contact him at: gghong@aol.com or 503/408-0865.

AAMA and MARF are pleased to announce a new website: acubriefs.com. This site is specific for doing reference searches on medical acupuncture and has a database of more than 11,000 references (primarily English) on acupuncture. Suggestions to make the site more useful are welcome. If you are not already receiving the Acubriefs newsletter, visit: acubriefs.com for a free subscription. Abstracted references of current literature on acupuncture are being mailed monthly (with examples posted online), reports Editor James K. Rotchford, MD.

Mitch Prywes, MD, is sponsoring Anastacia White with Introduction to Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine May 4-6 in Danbury, CT. She has practiced and taught Chinese medicine and worked in the herbal industry for 18 years. As her seminars are usually offered on the West Coast, this is a rare opportunity for members who live on the East Coast. Enrollment will be limited to the first 15-20 registrants. Registration is $525 by March 15 (then $600). For more details, contact White (510/420-0904, anaherbs@aol.com).

British Medical Acupuncture Society has introductory, intermediate and special topic acupuncture courses in 2001. Also, BMAS Spring Scientific Meeting will be April 28-29, 2001 at Bournemouth, Carrington House and the Autumn Scientific Meeting Oct. 6-7 in London. Visit BMAS’ website: medical-acupuncture.co.uk.

Academy members of at least five years can pass on their knowledge by participating in the Curbside Consult Program. Newer members will contact participants with questions. To join, request a practitioner response form (323/937-5514).

At presstime, Jay Sandweiss, DO, announced that Acupuncture Society of Michigan’s course, Applied Kinesiology for Physician Acupuncturists, has been moved to Crowne Plaza Hotel in Detroit (734/729-2600). The course was just approved for 12.5 Category 1 CME hours by the Michigan State Medical Society. For more details on the course, which will be April 28-29, 2001, see the calendar on page six.

A medical acupuncturist is needed to replace Russell Erickson, MD (who is retiring) for a contract/consultant position in Northern California. One day/week to work with established pain clinic/hospital outpatient setting in the Bay Area. Call Doreen Baleria or Dr. Valley (925/372-2620, 925/372-4654).

Jeffrey D. Kauffman, MD, will teach Five Element Acupuncture 2001: Blending it into Your Medical Practice, April 27-30, May 18-21 and June 22-25, or Aug. 17-20, Sept. 14-17 and Oct. 19-22. Fee is $5,000 for three four-day weekends. Also offered is Five Element Acupuncture 2001: Introductory (April 28-May 1, May 26-29 and June 23-26) and Advanced (Aug. 11-14, Sept. 8-11 and Oct. 13-16). Fee is $5,000 for each course. Call 916/488-8454 for more information.

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.

Send your news to: bdortberg@aol.com.

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Chapter News

AAMA now has Chapters in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.

Arizona

President Martha Grout, MD, announces that there are now 22 physicians who are members of the AzAAMA Chapter. Secretary/treasurer is now Geoffrey Gustavsen, MD.

Delaware Valley

In December, Hiroshi Nakazawa, MD, presented a full-day symposium on Japanese acupuncture and techniques. He also treated problem cases with abdominal pain, reflex sympathetic dystrophy and multiple sclerosis. The symposium was appreciated by all.

Noel Nowicki, MD, will come to the Delaware Valley on March 7 to share his expertise on Acupuncture Treatment of Brain Injury. For details, call secretary/treasurer Mitchell Krause, DO, (610/352-4660). This will be a dinner meeting, with the Chapter purchasing dinner at a restaurant for members.

Richard Niemtzow, MD, PhD,, MPH, will share his expertise with the Chapter on Sunday, April 21 for a full-day seminar. He will discuss treatment of obesity, xerostomia, peripheral neuropathy and cancer pain, among other topics.

Wisconsin

This Chapter was just approved. Pamela Avery, MD, is president, Joe Blustein, MD, is president-elect, and Cynthia Bender, MD, is secretary/treasurer. Starting with an organizational meeting last November, the Chapter is attempting to attract as many members as possible. Those involved are being surveyed to ascertain what activities they want and to start planning meetings. To join this Chapter, contact Dr. Avery (608/267-6102, pavery@meriter.com).

Chapters are encouraged to submit news (bdortberg@aol.com).

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