Feng Shui and Motorola - Patent medicine?

[Guest guest]

I've been a lurker for sometime. Just ran across a suprising piece of

information.

 

It's not April 1st and this is now actually on file with the US Patent

Office. Can Feng Shui really be patented by a big US corporation and

put in a cell phone?

 

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1 & Sect2=HITOFF & d=PG01 & p=1 & u=\

/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html & r=1 & f=G & l=50 & s1=%2220060084449%22.PGNR. & OS=DN/2006008\

4449 & RS=DN/20060084449

 

One might be tempted to snarkily call this I-ka-Ching?

 

It seems the race to automate modalities of TCM is on. How might we

best respond to his?

[Guest guest]

Can Feng Shui really be patented by a big US corporation and

> put in a cell phone?

>

 

This posting reminded me of this past winter when I was lecturing in

an Ayurvedic college in South India - a junior professor had made a

collection of several of the available software programs for making

diagnosis in Ayurveda. I tested three of the programs along with

several other physicians. It was a mess!!! and very discouraging

especially since many young practioners want to use these programs

to help them establish their clinical practice - many feel it will

compensate for their own lack of clinical experience.

 

The two major problems (there were many small technical problems in

every program tested) have to do with the inherant weaknesses in

such an approach to making a dignosis. Any system that can be

systemitized into a set of rules and factual assertions can

theoretically be put into a computer program - but in the case of

the human body this will ultimately not be useful simply because

there are way to many variables in disease and human physiology to

be so easily abstracted into an accurate diagnosis of disease

patterns. It is not just the patterns that must be descerned it is

also the relationship of the patterns to each other and the effect

of the patterns within the context of a particular (unique

constitution) individual - only then can we begin to make a

diagnosis of an individual case as opposed to simply abstracting

rules. The other major problem I found is that just because a

physician is an expert in writing software programs does not mean he

is also a good physician - I found that two of the programs were

obviously written by young men with limited experience in the

practice of clinical medicine - these were really nothing more than

a list of symptoms - the conclusions reached by these programs were

not valid and certainly not very useful in a clinical setting. One

problem is that the data input was so slow that few physicians and

or patients would be able to spend the time inputting all of the

data needed. And to what avail anyway - since it would have been

risky to take the diagnosis at face value and begin therapy based on

that diagnosis. The absolutely worst part of these programs for me

was that the treatment stratagies were so simplistic and unnuanced

that anyone would be stupid to start recoomnding treatment approachs

based on this meagre and simpleminded analysis - it reminded me of

reading daily horoscopes in the newspaper - how could such an

anlaysis be applicable to the millions of people all born under the

same sign. This is a childish approach to the great art and science

of trying to understand an individual.

 

In the case of Fung Shui a simple compass could be easily devised

for a phone or Palm Pilot - and one can see the usefulness of such a

program but beyond that trying to analyse a location based on a list

of rules is simply rediculous.

 

I have a TCM software program coming from Israel called ACE

Accupuncture Expert - this program can help one in searching

symptoms, syndromes, and traditional applications - it is a good

learning tool in the right hands - but I would never advise it's use

as a basic clinical tool. Searching symptoms is very helpful, as an

example, to come to understand how syndrome patterns manifest in TCM

terminology. But any program is only as good as the person who wrote

it. I often just set and play with the symptom, syndrome, TCm

pattern, herbal and accupuncture treatment of symptoms and syndromes

functions of this program - it is good time passing for me. But I

have also tested the diagnosis functions and found it slow and

tedious and ultimately6 inaccurate. Most cases present with complex

patterns that can in no way be analysed and the contradictions and

contraindications be resolved by a computer program.

 

Experienced practioners do not need such programs and inexperienced

practioners and students should never use them to acctualy diagnose

cases and prescribe therapies. Use them only when the patient is not

present - I think it weakens the patients confidence in the

practioner when one uses such programs in their presence. Good

programs can be used as a research tool but not for diagnosing

disease. They are only aids not primary tools for diagnosing. I see

the good ones like a computer medical library - they are more

convenient and easier to use than searching through dozens of books.