PROVIDENCE, RI—If you are feeling somewhat confused and shaken by the coming-together of conventional allopathic medicine and the various “alternative” healing systems, you can rest assured that your colleagues on the other side of the once-great divide are just as concerned and confounded.

Participants in the Oriental Medicine 2000 conference, an annual gathering of acupuncturists, and practitioners of various traditional Asian healing systems, voiced their own concerns about the movement toward integration. What follows are some of their thoughts and reflections on the question, “What are the most important issues facing alternative medicine today.” Does any of this sound familiar?

“How do we maintain integrity and yet become part of the system? We hold the world, ourselves, and our patients differently. We need to remember that as we negotiate with a huge system that is desperate for us to be a Band-Aid because we’re patient-friendly.”

—Ted Kaptchuk, Associate Director, Center for Alternative Medicine Research and Education, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

“Educational costs for people trained in traditional Chinese medicine are rising exorbitantly. The average student graduates owing $500 per month for 10 years.”

—Patricia D. Culliton, MA, L.Ac., Director, Alternative Medicine Division, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN

“Educating not only the public but other health care providers about acupuncture. There is so much we can provide, and many MDs want us to.”

—Lily Diamond, M.T.O.M., A.P., Dipl. Ac. & C.H. (NCCAOM), Diamond Healing Arts, Sebastian, FL

“Educating ourselves [alternative medicine practitioners] on insurance issues—what plans are helpful for us and for our businesses. That will help us defeat misinformation and misconceptions out there.”

—David Sollars, M.Ac., L.Ac., author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Acupuncture and Acupressure; private practice, Boston, MA

“I’m concerned about the standardization of oriental medicine educational curricula. Some standardization is inevitable, but too much takes away from your ability to work more intuitively with the medicine. It seems like more and more [Western] doctors are leaving their field because they feel they can’t practice medicine—because insurance companies are dictating from above based on cost analysis and not patient care. I would hate to see the same thing happen to us.”

—Eileen Power, M.Ed., L.Ac., core faculty, New England School of Acupuncture, Watertown, MA; private practice, Brookline, MA

“The single most important issue facing our profession is that we’re the only ones who know we are a profession. The general public doesn’t know acupuncturists as certified, licensed, professionals.”

—Matthew D. Bauer, L.Ac., private practice, LaVerne, CA

“Most current clinical research in acupuncture is asking the wrong question—Is it effective as Western treatment?—using Western medical conditions, Western definitions, and insisting on placebos or sham treatments. Licensed acupuncturists have got to get involved in planning research.”

—Richard Hammerschlag, Ph.D., Research Director, Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, Portland, OR; co-author of Acupuncture Efficacy: A Compendium of Controlled Clinical Trials

“Practitioners need to come into the political process. I encourage you to talk to legislators and decision makers to encourage them to set very high standards for the field.”

—Richard Ko, Pharm.D., Ph.D., Food and Drug Scientist, State of California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, CA