Thoughts on inter-professional communication responsibilities in healthcare….
Having practiced acupuncture exclusively in a private practice and complimentary medical office in California, inter-professional communication was most often encouraged by the other practitioners. I have not had much experience personally with a lack of inter-professional communication and collaboration within my own office walls. With that said, I would say most of my experience has been with patients who were coming to me as a last resort - when they have asked their MD what “they” think of trying acupuncture. A common response I often hear is, “Well, feel free to try it, but I personally can’t recommend anyone, and I can’t guarantee it will work.” It is so frustrating to me that today an MD practicing western medicine has not sought out any observational research, let alone have any personal experience with acupuncture. Furthermore, it leaves the patient with little trust or reassurance that our medicine will improve their condition.
We could argue that this has a lot to do with how pharmaceutical companies are too interested in gaining profits by encouraging doctors to prescribe meds, rather than encouraging them to consider natural therapies. In an article called “Why does Wikipedia Want to Deprive You of Acupuncture,” the author goes on to suggest that most science-based medicine advocates and skeptics use an ill-informed argument that natural healing modalities simply do not make sense, even going so far as to call them “pseudo-science.”
In the end, I think we as acupuncturists and herbalists can all agree that there is a serious lack of study and knowledge around MD’s understanding health as a whole and the urgency for these doctors to take responsibility to educate themselves in more complimentary medicines outside of their scope of practice. On the other end of the spectrum, there are many physicians that have a whole new perspective on health care after personal and clinical experience of adopting more complimentary medicines and have incorporated more of these modalities into their own private practices. As Paterson and Light describe in “Pioneers of a New Medicine” an example of a previous skeptic turned true believer is Dr. James Gordon who used complimentary medicines to heal a spinal injury because muscle relaxants were not working, and he did not want to have surgery. He now uses an array of other modalities in his psychiatric practice including acupuncture, Chinese herbs, nutrition, and massage just to name a few. He is also a clinical professor at Georgetown University where he trains western medical students in preventative medicine. Great Teamwork Dr. Gordon!
References
Gale, Richard; Null, Gary. “Why does Wikipedia want to deprive you of acupuncture.” Townsend Letter. Apr2020, Issue 441, p73-79.
Patterson, Eric; Light, Luise, “Pioneers of a new medicine.” Vegetarian Times, 01648497, Feb97, Issue 234, p60.
“Those who have learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” -Charles Darwin