doctor of herbology?

[Guest guest]

I thought this was interesting. It is the CA regs for using the title

doctor. Actually if one reads closely it seems to be the regs for

using the title OMD or DOM or MD or some other set of letters that

denotes one is a physician to the general public. It does not really

seem to control the use of the word doctor, per se, unless one is

portraying themselves, even implicitly, as a doctor of medicine or a

doctor of oriental medicine. In other words, could one have one's

patients address him as doctor as long as no legal documents or

advertising included the term medicine in conjunction. In other words,

could one have a mail order doctor of divinity and use this title

loosely.

 

Look at the last line of this ruling where it says, " it is improper to

use any title that makes reference to a medical doctor. " If by

identifying yourself as a doctor, you are referring to western medical

training received overseas (such as China), but you are NOT licensed to

practice medicine in California, it is clearly illegal to use the title

of doctor in any professional capacity. This would include all our

chinese professors. OTOH, there is NO similar general wording that

that says " it is improper to use any title that makes reference to an

ORIENTAL medical doctor " . Instead, very specific prohibitions are

listed. It does not seem there is any prohibition from calling oneself

a doctor of herbology, with or without an acupuncture license as long

as one does not (from sb577, the CA health freedom act)

 

" Indicate, advertise or imply that he or she is a physician or

surgeon " , which is easily addressed by another clause in the law that

states, " In addition, a California-based CAM practitioner must disclose

to his or her client in a written statement the following: that he or

she is not a licensed physician "

 

from the CA board of Acupuncture:

 

Please be advised that Attorney General Opinion No. 87-103, dated March

3, 1988, concluded that a licensed acupuncturist MAY NOT use the

initials " O.M.D. " or the title " Oriental Medical Doctor " or " D.O.M. "

and the title " Doctor Oriental Medicine " without the inclusion of more

information (L.Ac. or C.A.) , in advertising an acupuncture practice. A

licensed acupuncturist who can document proof of an approved Doctorate

Degree in Oriental Medicine MAY use those terms in conjunction with

more information, i.e. the title of licensed or certified

acupuncturist.

 

 In addition, according to section 1399.456 of the Acupuncture

Regulations, anyone using the title Oriental Medical Doctor or Doctor

Oriental Medicine must have obtained the doctorate degree from a school

or college that was approved by the California Department of Education

at the time of issuance.

 

Please be advised also, that in the State of California, it is

improper to use any title that makes reference to a medical doctor,

such as M.D. (China) or C.M.D. (Chinese Medical Doctor), or otherwise.

Only those individuals licensed as a physician and surgeon, M.D.

(medical doctor), by the State of California may use such initials.

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

FAX:

 

 

[Guest guest]

In other words, could one have one's

patients address him as doctor as long as no legal documents or

advertising included the term medicine in conjunction. In other words,

could one have a mail order doctor of divinity and use this title

loosely.

 

 

 

You cannot mislead your patients. If you have them address you as " doctor " ,

but refrain from using the term in any legal documents or advertising, what

message does this send? It's confusing.

 

Also, you cannot use the term " doctor " if your doctorate is in a field

unrelated to your professional practice. So, if you have a doctorate in

divinity, you can call yourself " doctor " when you go to a party or to

church, but you cannot call yourself " doctor " in connection with your

practice of Chinese medicine. The reason is that it deceives your public.

 

That is unethical, if not illegal.

 

Julie Chambers

[Guest guest]

, JulieJ8 <Juliej8@b...> wrote:

 

>

> Also, you cannot use the term " doctor " if your doctorate is in a field

> unrelated to your professional practice.

 

For the record, I would not use the title doctor even if I could. The title is

of no interest to

me, as I have made clear here many times. I wrote this post because others out

there are

using that title despite not meeting CA criteria. And others are claiming the

opposite of

what you wrote above. In other words, that CA law allows anyone with any form

of

doctorate to label themselves as doctor so and so as long as they use the terms

L.Ac. and

whatever their other degree is (phd usually). but in verbal communications, all

that gets

stated is doctor, not what type. I think the patient's assumption is that

either one is an

MD or OMD. So I agree that it would be unethical and/or illegal for an L.Ac. to

do this. It

is clearly done to give one a competitive edge and air of superiority in the

market.

 

However none of this argument applies to those who legally practice chinese

herbology

under the California health freedom act. They are not subject to the rules of

the

acupuncture board and state law does not prevent them from using the title

doctor as long

as they inform the patient in writing that they are not a physician. However it

would

probably be an unwise provocation to use this title even if technically legal.

As to whether

it would be unethical for an unlicensed herbalist to use the title doctor of

herbology is

hard to say (say they did ayurvedic studies in India, for example). As long as

no law is

broken and the patient is fully informed, I don't see an ethical issue.