Is our training as practitioners adequate to treat serious medical conditions?

[Guest guest]

Dear Bob,

 

You articulated an intense frustration and internal conflict that I (and I

suspect many others) am faced with. As you say this is true of ANY and EVERY

specialization, and condition, for that matter. I can't tell you the number of

times each week I am asked: " do you treat this condition, or Is Chinese

medicine able to treat that condition? " Invariably, the first time I am

presented with something that is new to me, I buy and try to read every book I

can find on the subject, review notes from school on case studies and lectures,

and invariably post or check archives from groups like this. On the one hand, I

feel that it's a terrible way to practice medicine, and I hope that future

students will be more adequately trained and have more extensive supervised

practice before going out into practice. Perhaps this can be the direction that

the DAOMs go towards: specialization. On the other hand, as Z'ev recently

pointed out, medicine is, in my opinion, an art form,

perhaps even more than a science. Experience and intuition have been wonderful

guides for me. The information and knowledge that I am able to extract from the

research I do has been enpowering as well. Just as with Western medicine, the

inferior physician is the one who uses a " cookbook " approach. When we use

Chinese diagnostic method and treat the patient according to their pattern

first, we give ourselves a major headstart towards proper treatment. Thank G-d,

I have been successful using Chinese medicine. But how much more so, would that

be the case if I was properly trained?

 

Thank you again for your important post!

 

Yehuda

Bob Flaws <pemachophel2001 wrote:

Sorry for being odd person out here (as usual), but this discussion of

anticancer herbs disturbs me. Do any schools currently teach a class

on CM oncology as part of their undergraduate curriculum? So far, I'm

not aware of any. In contemporary Chinese medicine in China, oncology

is a specialty (zhong liu ke), just like gynecology or pediatrics.

From the little I know of it, it entails a lot of specialized

knowledge and techniques, such as specific protocols to use on

specific days of specific chemo regimes, etc., not just a separate

materia medica. I also know that this information, by and large, is

not available in English. Further, it is my experience in China that

those who specialize in oncology are some of the best and brightest

practitioners with the most education and experience.

 

When I say I'm distrubed, I need to say that partly I am disturbed

because I'm conflicted. I understand that cancer patients are coming

to us asking for help with a life-threatening situation, and there

typically is no one professionally trained and experienced as a CM

oncologist to which we can refer them. At least not locally. So we

want to help, to do what we can. But the level of unknowing in these

posts is scary to me. If people are worrying about supplementing when

evils are present, IMO, they are a long way from being professionally

ready to deal with cancer patients.

 

On the one hand, I would like to say that we simply should not exceed

the scope of practice we have been trained in. If we have not been

trained specifically in pediatrics, we should not treat pediatrics. If

we have not been trained in gynecology, we should not treat

gynecology. If we have not been trained in oncology, we shouldn't

treat cancer. In my mind, that would be the mature, professional thing

to do, the thing most of our co-professionals in other healing arts

professions, such as MDs, nurses, and PTs, would probably tell us was

medically ethical.

 

But, on the other hand, that stance is predicated on the existence of

the availability professionally trained specialists, and that's not

where we're at. We also have a medical ethical imperative to try to

help others, and I know that's where must of us are coming from. We

are a very compassionate and humane group of people as a whole. At

least that's my experience. So, how do we juggle that with the prime

imperative of " First do no harm? " According to that prime imperative,

if we are not sure of what we are doing (or at least reasonably sure),

we are supposed to do nothing.

 

I know we have touched on these issues before, and I know most of us

feel we are in a bind between what should be and what is. However, I

do think we need to pay more attention to such ethical issues.

 

Further, on a positive note, i.e., trying to do something positive

instead of just criticizing, how about our trying to create a CM

oncology referral network? To kick off that initiative, here are three

names of practitioners I know are trained and experienced in CM oncology:

 

1. Michael Broffman @ The Pine Streat Benevolent Association in, I

believe, Corte Madera or San Rafael,, CA

2. Issac Cohen, I believe in either Berkeley or Oakland, CA

3. Zhou Ming-ying in Boulder, CO, 303-546-6464

 

I'm sure there are others similarly qualified and experienced out

there; I just don't who or where they are. But, if we had a hundred

such names scattered across the U.S., we would be able to refer our

cancer patients more easily and not be forced to take on cases that

are beyond our personal training and experience.

 

Here's another positive suggestion. If you want to treat cancer

patients, get yourself trained to do so. Go to China and set up a

training program in specifically CM oncology. This is not hard to do.

Most CM schools in the larger cities in China are set up and happy to

train Westerners. If you have the greenbacks, they'll teach you what

you want to know. A one-month training should cost around $1,000 in

tuition with translation. How much you spend on room and board and

airfare is up to you. One to three months of training just in CM

oncology would accomplish a whole lot. Not everything you should know,

but enough to get started. Personally, if one is not willing to commit

at least this much to learning how to treat cancer with CM, I do not

think they should be doing it.

 

Just my rambling out loud.

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://traditionaljewishmedicine.com/

 

 

 

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