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> " " <zrosenbe

> June 29, 2005 10:30:02 AM PDT

> Jack Miller <jmiller

> Cc: Stacy Gomes <sgomes, Robert Damone

> <bdamone, <, Tom Haines

> <thaines

> WHO announcement

>

>

> Folks,

> Today the World Health Organization announced the adaptation of

> the terminology developed in the Clinical Dictionary of Chinese

> Medicine (Wiseman-Feng) as the recommended standard for translation

> of Chinese medical concepts into Western languages. In addition:

>

> 1. The list is 4,000 terms, this clearly indicates that the Asians

> themselves

> reject the notion of small glosses and the idea that TCM has no real

> technical terminology.

>

> 2. The principle of source oriented translation is explicit in the WHO

> decision, this is a clear rejection of the idea that TCM terms

> should be

> chosen to please the arrival audience.

>

> 3. The choice of PD terms was supported by both western and asian

> representatives, including Paul Unschuld and Christopher Cullen of

> the Needham Institute.

>

> This is, in my opinion, a major advancement in the development of

> Chinese medicine in the West as a bona-fide medical discipline.

>

>

>

>

>

> Chair, Department of Herbal Medicine

> Pacific College of Oriental Medicine

> San Diego, Ca. 92122

>

 

 

 

 

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Since there are few other choices to be made and if they had to make one then so

be it.

Unfortunately, all of us are going to be spending more time discussing the whole

debate

with this official structure over the debate. Perhaps if this is now a public

and international

standard, forces can come into play so that the concepts and terminology itself

can be

improved with input from the international community.

doug

 

, wrote:

>

>

>

>

> > " " <zrosenbe@s...>

> > June 29, 2005 10:30:02 AM PDT

> > Jack Miller <jmiller@P...>

> > Cc: Stacy Gomes <sgomes@P...>, Robert Damone

> > <bdamone@e...>, , Tom Haines

> > <thaines@P...>

> > WHO announcement

> >

> >

> > Folks,

> > Today the World Health Organization announced the adaptation of

> > the terminology developed in the Clinical Dictionary of Chinese

> > Medicine (Wiseman-Feng) as the recommended standard for translation

> > of Chinese medical concepts into Western languages. In addition:

> >

> > 1. The list is 4,000 terms, this clearly indicates that the Asians

> > themselves

> > reject the notion of small glosses and the idea that TCM has no real

> > technical terminology.

> >

> > 2. The principle of source oriented translation is explicit in the WHO

> > decision, this is a clear rejection of the idea that TCM terms

> > should be

> > chosen to please the arrival audience.

> >

> > 3. The choice of PD terms was supported by both western and asian

> > representatives, including Paul Unschuld and Christopher Cullen of

> > the Needham Institute.

> >

> > This is, in my opinion, a major advancement in the development of

> > Chinese medicine in the West as a bona-fide medical discipline.

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > Chair, Department of Herbal Medicine

> > Pacific College of Oriental Medicine

> > San Diego, Ca. 92122

> >

>

>

>

>

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, " "

wrote:

> Since there are few other choices to be made and if they had to make

one then so be it.

> Unfortunately, all of us are going to be spending more time

discussing the whole debate

> with this official structure over the debate. Perhaps if this is now

a public and international

> standard, forces can come into play so that the concepts and

terminology itself can be

> improved with input from the international community.

 

It is not true that there are few other choices to be made. Several

previously published term lists were proposed by extremely powerful

figures within the Chinese community. Nigel's approach was chosen

based upon its merits, not based on a lack of competition.

 

The concepts and terminology will indeed have additional input from

the three countries involved (China, Japan, and Korea).

 

Eric

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Congratulations to Nigel and Feng. A major development that should help to

improve translational standards in Asia and has the potential to make a

huge difference in the amount of material translated into English and in

the quality of that material. Enough of CAM!

 

Personally, no matter how one might feel about the PD terminology, I

believe we all owe a debt of gratitude to Nigel and Feng for bringing this

conversation to the fore of our field. The man hours that have gone into

the production of this work are enormous - a task of love. Thank you.

 

Marnae

 

At 05:04 PM 6/29/2005, you wrote:

 

 

>

>

> > " " <zrosenbe

> > June 29, 2005 10:30:02 AM PDT

> > Jack Miller <jmiller

> > Cc: Stacy Gomes <sgomes, Robert Damone

> > <bdamone, <, Tom Haines

> > <thaines

> > WHO announcement

> >

> >

> > Folks,

> > Today the World Health Organization announced the adaptation of

> > the terminology developed in the Clinical Dictionary of Chinese

> > Medicine (Wiseman-Feng) as the recommended standard for translation

> > of Chinese medical concepts into Western languages. In addition:

> >

> > 1. The list is 4,000 terms, this clearly indicates that the Asians

> > themselves

> > reject the notion of small glosses and the idea that TCM has no real

> > technical terminology.

> >

> > 2. The principle of source oriented translation is explicit in the WHO

> > decision, this is a clear rejection of the idea that TCM terms

> > should be

> > chosen to please the arrival audience.

> >

> > 3. The choice of PD terms was supported by both western and asian

> > representatives, including Paul Unschuld and Christopher Cullen of

> > the Needham Institute.

> >

> > This is, in my opinion, a major advancement in the development of

> > Chinese medicine in the West as a bona-fide medical discipline.

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > Chair, Department of Herbal Medicine

> > Pacific College of Oriental Medicine

> > San Diego, Ca. 92122

> >

>

>

>

>

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, Marnae Ergil <marnae@p...>

wrote:

> Congratulations to Nigel and Feng. A major development that should

help to

> improve translational standards in Asia and has the potential to

make a

> huge difference in the amount of material translated into English

and in

> the quality of that material. Enough of CAM!

>

> Personally, no matter how one might feel about the PD terminology,

I

> believe we all owe a debt of gratitude to Nigel and Feng for

bringing this

> conversation to the fore of our field. The man hours that have

gone into

> the production of this work are enormous - a task of love. Thank

you.

 

Yes, it is truly a great development. Our range of usable literature

will expand tremendously if the Chinese at last start producing high-

quality translations that preserve the spirit of CM. As Z'ev pointed

out, the WHO conclusions are very significant because they explictly

illustrate the importance of terminology and the value of source-

based translations. Congratulations to Nigel and Feng Ye for their

pioneering work!

 

And thank you Marnae for your consistently thoughtful and well-

written posts.

 

Eric

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I just wanted to point out that the comments in my post were edited

from a longer post by Bob Felt to me, and are basically his thoughts

and sentiments.

 

 

On Jun 30, 2005, at 9:50 AM, Eric Brand wrote:

 

> Yes, it is truly a great development. Our range of usable literature

> will expand tremendously if the Chinese at last start producing high-

> quality translations that preserve the spirit of CM. As Z'ev pointed

> out, the WHO conclusions are very significant because they explictly

> illustrate the importance of terminology and the value of source-

> based translations. Congratulations to Nigel and Feng Ye for their

> pioneering work!

>

 

 

 

 

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, " Eric Brand " <smilinglotus>

wrote:

 

forces can come into play so that the concepts and

> terminology itself can be

> > improved with input from the international community.

>

 

>

> The concepts and terminology will indeed have additional input from

> the three countries involved (China, Japan, and Korea).

>

> Eric

 

 

We continue to deal with this straw man, that wiseman terminology was created by

some

kind of cabal that shut out all competitors, when in fact it has been an open

evolving

terminology for 20 years. Everyone has been invited to the table and as we have

heard on

this list many times, no one accepted the invitation nor chose to create their

own

equivalent option. They just complained bitterly and devoted all efforts to

jockeying for

position through political rather than scholarly methods. The crux of this is

the continuing

requirement of certain outdated, nonstandardized texts as board exam reference

texts.

 

Now here we are twenty years later and whether the Englsih speaking community

sees the

need or not, the Asians who outnumber us in this field at least ten to one have

made their

decree. As they have long used technical standards in their own language, the

whole

matter was really a no brainer to them. Then when it came down to choosing

between a

few Asian options and Wiseman, Wiseman no doubt made the most sense since it is

the

only standardized terminology already in widespread use in the US.

 

Personally, I think much of the time for comment and revision is over. I

propose a limited

period of time to submit any revisions or alternate term choices to whatever

committee

made this decision. Then after that, any further revisions should be few and

far between.

As I have mentioned, if one is interested in digitizing the TCM literature,

including modern

research, searching becomes nightmarish very quickly if there is not a single

standardized

terminology. How does one create keywords, for example? And it would be very

disruptive to established databases if the terms are easily changed. I am sure

a large part

of the reason the Chinese themselves want this standard is for digital reasons,

including

extremely accurate instant computerized translation that is just around the

corner. So

once the period of official comment is over, it pretty much needs to be set in

stone.

 

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In a message dated 6/30/05 5:00:22 PM, writes:

 

 

> As they have long used technical standards in their own language, the whole

> matter was really a no brainer to them.  Then when it came down to choosing

> between a

> few Asian options and Wiseman, Wiseman no doubt made the most sense since it

> is the

> only standardized terminology already in widespread use in the US.

>

 

Americacentric, eh? Probably, they chose this because it did the best job and

was most comprehensive. The WHO is in Geneva, and although the person who

heads up the Oriental Medicine aspect is indeed Chinese, I am sure she has

worked

with people in Europe on making this decision as well as American MD's, who

seem to have a better " in " with the WHO than acupuncture professionals.

 

By the way, this is how I differentiate between those professionals who use

acupuncture as a clinical modality and those with complete training, a la the

WHO standards. There are indeed MD's, DO's, ND's and DC's who are acupuncture

professionals, but they are few compared to the folks who are lay

acupuncturists (or hobbyists) and should be referring out to acupuncture

professionals when

they don't get results and not just reverting to drugs, saying acupuncture

didn't work. This is like a family medicine doc referring out to an ENT when

s/he doesn't get a response, and it is the ethical thing to do. However, it is

not done presently. Whoops! I may have started a new thread.

David Molony

 

 

 

David Molony

101 Bridge Street

Catasauqua, PA 18032

Phone (610)264-2755

Fax (610) 264-7292

 

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, acuman1@a... wrote:

>

 

> Americacentric, eh? Probably, they chose this because it did the best job and

> was most comprehensive.

 

I am sure you know I believe the last sentence goes without saying. I was

actually referring

to the entire English speaking world where Wiseman is the only standard commonly

available.

The quality is a given. But something tipped the balance. rather than even

suggesting

anglocentricism (even though we are talking about translation into english,

aren't we), it is

probably just more of that Chinese pragmatism. It works. why reinvent the

wheel? Is

wiseman american anyway? He lives in Taiwan. definitely an international man

of mystery.

so no kowtowing here.

 

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A few important things should be pointed out about the recent WHO

meetings. Firstly, PD (Wiseman) terminology was approved by the WHO

to be the foundation upon which the WHO terminology is based.

Individual term disputes will be resolved by discussions (for

instance, xiao qing long tang's English name is likely to change), and

terms that have exact Western medical equivalents will be open to be

translated based upon the traditional name or the WM name (largely

depending on whether the publication is for Evidence Based Medicine or

WM-based research, or for use by CM professionals). The WHO didn't

blanketly adopt PD terminology, they just agreed that PD terminology

is accurate and based on appropriate principles of translation. Their

final list will use PD terms as a base and discuss variations and

inclusions as needed.

 

The other key point was alluded to by Todd (with regard to the need

for professional terms for keyword journal searches in the digital

age, etc). A primary motive for the WHO is the promotion of Evidence

Based Medicine (EBM). EBM is an important facet of the changing

landscape of modern healthcare. Journal articles, publications,

education, etc require consistent and professional term use.

Terminology is deemed to be the first essential step towards allowing

CM to progress into the modern world of integrated healthcare.

 

The agreement by Asian nations to develop standards in their

terminology obviously demonstates the importance of clear terms.

They also went through the source language terms to eliminate the use

of problematic phrases within the Asian world. They are assessing

their own terms at the same time as they are implementing standards

for effective discussion and transmission in English.

 

Eric

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, " "

wrote:

> , acuman1@a... wrote:

> >

>

> > Americacentric, eh?

 

Wiseman is British (but arguably more Taiwanese than anything by now),

Unschuld was there (German), and the big cats from China, Japan, and

Korea.

 

Hardly an Americentric bunch.

 

Eric

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This is starting to make sense now as some of my colleagues have been on the

working

group for W.H.O. terminology for the last few years. The announcement that WHO

had

adopted PD was confusing to them and seemed premature.

doug

 

 

, " Eric Brand " <smilinglotus>

wrote:

The WHO didn't

> blanketly adopt PD terminology, they just agreed that PD terminology

> is accurate and based on appropriate principles of translation. Their

> final list will use PD terms as a base and discuss variations and

> inclusions as needed.

>

> The agreement by Asian nations to develop standards in their

> terminology obviously demonstates the importance of clear terms.

> They also went through the source language terms to eliminate the use

> of problematic phrases within the Asian world. They are assessing

> their own terms at the same time as they are implementing standards

> for effective discussion and transmission in English.

>

> Eric

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They are assessing

their own terms at the same time as they are implementing standards

for effective discussion and transmission in English.

>>>>That would be interesting as it may be harder done than said

 

 

 

 

Oakland, CA 94609

 

 

 

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, " "

<alonmarcus@w...> wrote:

> They are assessing

> their own terms at the same time as they are implementing standards

> for effective discussion and transmission in English.

> >>>>That would be interesting as it may be harder done than said

 

 

Apparently they didn't actually need to eliminate too many terms in

the source languages when assessing which terms were meaningful and

which were not.

 

Eric

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At 07:14 PM 7/2/2005, you wrote:

 

Nope - he is English.

 

Marnae

 

> Is

>wiseman american anyway? He lives in Taiwan. definitely an international

>man of mystery.

>so no kowtowing here.

>

>Todd

>

>

>

>

>Chinese Herbal Medicine offers various professional services, including

>board approved continuing education classes, an annual conference and a

>free discussion forum in Chinese Herbal Medicine.

>

>

>

>

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