Re:AAOM terminology conf review

[Guest guest]

eric, thank you 4 taking the time 2 go into such detail. 10 yrs out of school,

that sure gives me great leads 4 my pda activity, too. i am glad 2 hear your

impression of nccaom's openess 2 evolving terminology. tu again, lynn

 

[smilinglotus] wrote:

AAOM notes

 

The AAOM must be commended for bringing our community together to

address the issue of Chinese medical terminology. As medical

information worldwide is increasingly moving towards a digital age,

standards of expression in East Asian medicine are being addressed by

a variety of organizations, including the World Health Organization

(WHO), the World Federation of Societies (WFCMS), and

China's State Administration of Traditional (SATCM).

As the first US-based organization to address this issue, the AAOM

has done a great service to the profession by stimulating discussion

on this important topic. By bringing together the advice of American

experts in the field, the AAOM is spearheading the task of identifying

trends in English terminology use in the United States. Identifying

these trends allows the AAOM to offer vital representation for the

profession to larger organizations such as the WHO, which seeks to

establish international standards in Chinese medical terminology.

 

This letter is essentially a review of my personal impressions of the

meeting as a member of the audience. While it is impossible for me to

encapsulate the depth of the presenters' speeches in a few brief

sentences, I hope that my take-home impressions may offer a general

overview of the meeting for those who were unable to attend.

 

Before I begin, I would like to briefly introduce myself so that my

comments may be assessed in accordance with my experiences and

personal limitations. My observations of the meeting are nothing

other than personal observations, and I hope that they convey an

accurate representation of the views of the various presenters. I

flew in from Taiwan 2 days before the conference and drove through the

night from LA in order to attend; I apologize if my memory is a bit

imperfect on any issues, it is due to travel fatigue and not ill intent.

 

I am a graduate of the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, with a

prior background in undergraduate study of Chinese language, history,

and cultural studies. I have lived for the past three years in

Taiwan, where I have studied Chinese medical translation with Nigel

Wiseman and Feng Ye while completing an extended clinical internship

in the Chinese medicine department of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.

With regards to translation and terminology, my experience is

primarily centered upon my work experience as a translator and editor

for the US-based Paradigm Publications and the Beijing-based People's

Medical Publishing House (PMPH, Renmin Weisheng Chubanshe). During my

stay in Beijing, I assisted PMPH with training and recruitment of

translators and was frequently involved in discussions with local

experts and staff about translation styles and the English terminology

of Chinese medicine. In Beijing, I attended the foundational

terminology meeting of the World Federation of

Societies (WFCMS), in which foremost experts from the PRC and foreign

experts such as Nigel Wiseman and Paul Unschuld discussed issues of

terminology. While I am a member of the WFCMS' terminology committee,

it is a largely honorific position that is of less practical

importance than my daily experience with translation and editing of

Chinese medical texts. Having studied Chinese for only ten years, I

lack the depth of experience of the field's leaders, but I am

nevertheless reasonably well-informed about a wide range of issues

relating to translation theory and term choices.

 

Any review of the conference should naturally begin with my sincere

gratitude towards Miki Shima and Will Morris, the people who made this

timely discussion on nomenclature a reality. In my opinion, Will

Morris, the president of the AAOM, has truly demonstrated his

commitment to the profession by initiating one of the most important

efforts towards the advancement of the field ever undertaken by a

professional CM organization. I left the meeting vowing to join the

AAOM as soon as I move back to the USA, and I certainly now perceive

the AAOM to be at the forefront of all our professional organizations

as a result of their efforts.

 

As a key organizer in the event, Miki Shima selected a balanced group

of professionals with diverse perspectives to facilitate debate,

discussion, and unity within the field. I left with a strong

impression that Miki is very dedicated to resolving differences

between different members of the field and is keen to create a unified

and open system of terminology that will allow for enhanced

correlation of concepts throughout the English literature. He seems

to greatly value pluralism, which is seen by his desire to create an

integrated and inclusive database of existing terminology.

 

Following an introduction by Will Morris and Miki Shima, Jeannie Kang

took the podium to offer the group a brief report on her interactions

with the WHO and their meetings in Seoul regarding standardized

English terminology. Her presentation was eloquent and she struck me

as an extremely intelligent individual. She seems to be an ideal

representative for our community within a large organization like the

WHO, which must constantly balance multiple agendas across many member

states and medical styles. According to Ms. Kang, the WHO is already

planning to incorporate Chinese diagnostic codes into its

international classification of disease codes. Her report was a

reminder that term standardization is an important and widely

recognized issue internationally, and the increasing reliance on

technology makes professional standards in terminology essential in an

age of paperless hospitals and searchable databases of medical studies.

 

Although the topics of Miki Shima and Jeannie Kang were not oriented

towards terminological issues related to their native Japanese or

Korean medical traditions, their insightful presentations left me

thinking about how crucially the Western field needs more input from

the Japanese and Korean communities,....