On the 25th anniversary of its founding, one of the strongest proponent groups of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) industry in B.C. said its redoubling its efforts for the practice to gain wider acceptance within the current health-care system.
Gary Ho, CEO and founder of Tzu Chi Foundation Canada, said the Buddhist-philanthropy group (with original ties to the Taiwanese community) has made progress in the last year, largely by reaching out to certain demographics in need of health care outside of existing avenues, but would like provincial lawmakers to consider the benefits of TCM beyond niche markets.
TCM has a big potential in reducing B.C.s current medical expenses, Ho said, adding that he would like to see Tzu Chis clinics in B.C. hospitals one day as part of Medical Services Plan-covered treatments.
The benefits of TCM, which tends to be non-invasive, can be found in the shortening of the rehab period after a patients chemotherapy, the avoidance of certain surgeries where alternative treatments are available, and beyond. And the reduced cost means more people would have access to care.
B.C. has a long history of supporting TCM in Canada. Acupuncture one of TCMs signature treatments has been a designated health profession under the provinces Health Professions Act since 1996, and TCM itself was designated as a health profession in 2000. Both are regulated by the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of BC.
But many industry officials feel progress has stalled in recent years. Despite commitments to establishing an environment for a TCM school at a public post-secondary institution in the 2013 throne speech, the first such occurrence an acupuncture diploma program launched at Kwantlen Polytechnic University last July remains a two-year program limited to only one aspect of TCM (instead of the originally planned four-year program).
Some industry observers have also noted that the exclusion of TCM from the provincial Medical Services Plan makes it challenging for an increasing number of TCM doctors to find adequate market space to find patients and serve the community a challenge also facing Tzu Chi since it owns the International College of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Vancouver, which graduates a new class of practitioners every year.
Currently, provincial statistics put the median annual salary of a TCM doctor at $19,890.
Thats why, Ho said, Tzu Chi has been focused on public awareness in the last few years. The groups team of doctors has been holding consultation clinics at the annual TaiwanFest in downtown Vancouver every summer, reaching approximately 1,000 people annually. The philanthropy group also focuses efforts on the aforementioned targeted demographics to reach communities that may be more receptive to TCM.
One such demographic, officials say, is the First Nations community, and Tzu Chi has been holding regular clinics at such communities in Sumas, Seabird Island, Abbotsford and Nanaimo.
Ho said First Nations patients tend to have a higher acceptance level of herbal treatments, which comprise a large part of TCM practices, making the outreach to those communities a natural fit.
On May 9, when Tzu Chi established a health centre in Nanaimo for TCM clinics with the help of Simon Fraser University (SFU) and First Nations officials, the opening drew 74 patients on that day alone, demonstrating the existence of demand for such a service in the community.
They came with long-standing, chronic conditions. In almost every case, we were able to do something to improve their conditions, Ho said. We are not saying this is the be-all and end-all of medical treatments, that this can cure anything. But what it does do is it gives patients another option, another choice.
Whats more important, however, is that these clinics are co-operative efforts involving partners like SFU that will conduct research into TCM from a third-party point-of-view, which Ho said will be important for the practice to achieve widespread acceptance.
He also noted another effort a clinic held twice a week at Vancouver Coastal Healths Raven Song Community Health Centre as an example of the type of moves that will propel the local TCM movement forward.
Our hope is to have TCM treatment from Tzu Chi clinics within the B.C. health-care systems, directly found in hospitals themselves, he said.
This type of co-operation is crucial for us, because we are not doing this by ourselves. We are essentially working with government, academia and the communities themselves, and it involves research beyond clinical treatment from a respected third party that reflects on our authenticity in trying to help.
Originally posted here:
- Yes, But. The Annotated Atlantic. - November 7th, 2009 [November 7th, 2009]
- Health Insurance Benefit Costs by Region - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- For an Operator, Please Press... - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Pollyanna With a Pen: Maine Governor Signs 18 New Health Care Bills into Law - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- AMA Sounds the Alarm, Medicare Making Yet Another Attempt to Cut Reimbursement - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Mass Governor Asks Blue Cross to Keep Higher Employer Contribution - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Lifespan and Care New England Plan Monopoly (Again) - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Dirigo Health: Con Artists, Liars, and Thieves? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- New Orleans: Health Challenges - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- August a Flurry of Activity - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Maine's Dirigo Health Savings One-Third of Original Estimate - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- “Methodolatry”: My new favorite term for one of the shortcomings of evidence-based medicine - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Suzanne Somers’ Knockout: Dangerous misinformation about cancer (part 1) - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- A science-based blog about GMO - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- A Not-So-Split Decision - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Military Medicine in Iraq - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The effective wordsmithing of Amy Wallace - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- A Science Lesson from a Homeopath and Behavioral Optometrist - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Join CFI in opposing funding mandates for quackery in health care reform - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Mainstreaming Science-Based Medicine: A Novel Approach - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Those who live in glass houses… - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- J.B. Handley of the anti-vaccine group Generation Rescue: Misogynistic attacks on journalists who champion science - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- When homeopaths attack medicine and physics - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The cancer screening kerfuffle erupts again: “Rethinking” screening for breast and prostate cancer - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- All Medicines Are Poison! - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- When Loud Wins: Will Your Tax Dollars Pay For Prayer? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- It’s All in Your Head - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Skeptical O.B. joins the Science-Based Medicine crew - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Tragic Death Toll of Homebirth - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- What’s the right C-section rate? Higher than you think. - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Recombinant Human Antithrombin – Milking Nanny Goats for Big Bucks - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Does C-section increase the rate of neonatal death? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Man in Coma 23 Years – Is He Really Conscious? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Why Universal Hepatitis B Vaccination Isn’t Quite Universal - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Ontario naturopathic prescribing proposal is bad medicine - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Naturopaths and the anti-vaccine movement: Hijacking the law in service of pseudoscience - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The Institute for Science in Medicine enters the health care reform fray - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Neti pots – Ancient Ayurvedic Treatment Validated by Scientific Evidence - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Early Intervention for Autism - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- A temporary reprieve from legislative madness - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- A critique of the leading study of American homebirth - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Lose those holiday pounds - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Endocrine disruptors—the one true cause? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Acupuncture for Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Evidence in Medicine: Experimental Studies - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Midwives and the assault on scientific evidence - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The Mammogram Post-Mortem - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- An Influenza Recap: The End of the Second Wave - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The End of Chiropractic - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Cell phones and cancer again, or: Oh, no! My cell phone’s going to give me cancer! (revisited) - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- Another wrinkle to the USPSTF mammogram guidelines kerfuffle: What about African-American women? - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- Acupuncture, the P-Value Fallacy, and Honesty - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- The One True Cause of All Disease - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- Communicating with the Locked-In - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- Are the benefits of breastfeeding oversold? - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- Measles - December 20th, 2009 [December 20th, 2009]
- Radiation from medical imaging and cancer risk - December 21st, 2009 [December 21st, 2009]
- Multiple Sclerosis and Irrational Exuberance - December 21st, 2009 [December 21st, 2009]
- Medical Fun with Christmas Carols - December 22nd, 2009 [December 22nd, 2009]
- Lithium for ALS – Angioplasty for MS - December 23rd, 2009 [December 23rd, 2009]
- “Toxins”: the new evil humours - December 24th, 2009 [December 24th, 2009]
- 2009’s Top 5 Threats To Science In Medicine - December 24th, 2009 [December 24th, 2009]
- Buteyko Breathing Technique – Nothing to Hyperventilate About - December 26th, 2009 [December 26th, 2009]
- The Graston Technique – Inducing Microtrauma with Instruments - December 29th, 2009 [December 29th, 2009]
- The “pharma shill” gambit - December 29th, 2009 [December 29th, 2009]
- Ginkgo biloba – No Effect - December 30th, 2009 [December 30th, 2009]
- Oppose “Big Floss”; practice alternative dentistry - January 1st, 2010 [January 1st, 2010]
- Causation and Hill’s Criteria - January 3rd, 2010 [January 3rd, 2010]
- The life cycle of translational research - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- The anti-vaccine movement strikes back against Dr. Paul Offit - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- Osteoporosis Drugs: Good Medicine or Big Pharma Scam? - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- Acupuncture for Hot Flashes - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- The case for neonatal circumcision - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- A victory for science-based medicine - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- James Ray and testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) - January 10th, 2010 [January 10th, 2010]
- The Water Cure: Another Example of Self Deception and the “Lone Genius” - January 12th, 2010 [January 12th, 2010]
- Be careful what you wish for, Dr. Dossey, you just might get it - January 13th, 2010 [January 13th, 2010]
- You. You. Who are you calling a You You? - January 15th, 2010 [January 15th, 2010]
- The War on Salt - January 16th, 2010 [January 16th, 2010]
- Is breech vaginal delivery safe? - January 16th, 2010 [January 16th, 2010]