Graduate diploma in Acupuncture (GDIA)
I've signed up for the Graduate Diploma in Acupuncture course.
It's a new course for western medical doctors that the Singapore College of TCM has set up under a directive from MOH. It's for 1 year, 405 hours, and costs $8452.50
I enquired about learning acupuncture or TCM 3 years ago and was told that I would have to either do a full time 4 year course of part time 6 year course in Mandarin. That would put off almost all working doctors today!
So this course was a breath of fresh air. It couldn't have been timed better too, with my recent disappointment.
I've been reading a bit about acupuncture, accupressure, meridians, chi flow, yin and yang over the past 3 years on my own. And I must say TCM is pretty interesting. It's more philosophical and conceptual rather than chemistry, physics, biology science based if you get what I mean.
Anyway I'll write a few entries as the course progresses. It starts in May.
The main reason I am learning this course is for interest as well as to treat my family and friends and certain patients. It is not for money. The charge for acupuncture is about $10 per treatment. At least that was what the previous doctor who worked at my clinic charged her patients.
I wonder what uglybaldie would call this? More quackery? Another addition of letters to the back of my name?
I think of it as keeping an open mind, broadening horizons, increasing options and services to patients at a affordable price to them.
posted by Dr Oz bloke @ 6:09 PM
15 Comments:
Howdy ozy, I'm back!
Congrats! It's a good move.
Glad you acknowledge the mystic knowledge of your roots which western medicine has scoffed at for too long.
No, this is not quackery. Carried out by qualified and well trained practitioners, acupuncture is alternative medicine well deserved. My mother who is in her 80s and of robust health, despite her age, gets regular acupuncture treatment to maintain her mobility and vigour. Of course, supplementary tonics like Ginseng, Dansheng, bird's nest, etc. helps too.
As with GP clinics, there are indeed quacks practising around every corner of our HDB estates. Most of them are money grabbing, fly-by-night operations run by men of dubious credentials. The trick as with consulting GPs is to separate the grain from the chaff.
Hey I'm glad you're not running me down on this!
Chinese medicine has been around for centuries! It's older than western medicine! Of course it's not something you scoff at!
The problem i feel with most doctors or even people is that whatever they don't know, they ridicule. That's hardly fair nor mature.
Read about it, learn it and then decide for yourself. And I started doing this a ocuple of years back.
So I'm glad I can finally do a course in so called "alternative medicine" that is licensed and recognized by our MOH and SMC so I don't get myself into trouble and be officially called a quack.
What do you think of homeopathy? It's actually somewhat similar in concept to TCM and in some cases people combine the 2. Of course homeopathy is called bogus by many doctors.
"What do you think of homeopathy? It's actually somewhat similar in concept to TCM and in some cases people combine the 2. Of course homeopathy is called bogus by many doctors."
It's not really similar if you look at the two practices closely.
I would think that TCM is much more scientific whilst homeopathy in my opinion is more quackery and the precision treatment required is not easily attainable.
I concur with the views of doctors who do not view homeopathy as orthodox treatment for illnesses.
Having said so much of TCM and homeopathy, aromatherapy and whatever, the fact remains that if you need to clear some tubes or replace a spare part, nothing beats a guy who is a FRCS.
Exactly!
Actually I was just telling my wife these couple of days the newfound vigour I have!
It all started with recognizing that I was a GP, NOT a doctor!
And patients like to hear what they like to hear. So I know which patients want to hear the latest developments from the New England Journal of Medicine, which patients want to hear about their metal yin lung meridian being drained of chi from a deficient water yin meridian, and which patients want to know about vitamins, supplements, homeopathy, whatever.
At the end of the day, there's no end to what patients want. Just give it to them :)
So it's good to learn everything lah!
Hee Hee,
"It all started with recognizing that I was a GP, NOT a doctor!"
Good for ya. You found yourself!
"And patients like to hear what they like to hear. So I know which patients want to hear the latest developments from the New England Journal of Medicine, which patients want to hear about their metal yin lung meridian being drained of chi from a deficient water yin meridian, and which patients want to know about vitamins, supplements, homeopathy, whatever."
The first personna, you're a doc., the second, you're a easternized GP,the third, you're a ........CON!
"At the end of the day, there's no end to what patients want. Just give it to them :)"
You're in the wrong profession mate! You should be selling life insurance, used cars or be a politician! Come to think of it, I think you can sell better than you heal! :-)
By the way, after you graduate, might be a good idea to go to Beijing and further your TCM studies. Who knows, you might meet someone and emigrate there!
Dowan lah, I'm getting the hang of this being a GP business.
A general guide is
Old people = talk in terms of heaty, cooling, yin, yang, metal, wood, fire, water, earth, etc
Young modern people = talk about latest from CDC, FDA, NEJM, Lancet
Younger people from MLM companies = talk about alkaline water, free radicals, antioxidants, omega 3 fatty acids, medium chain triglycerides, etc
Your guide is a misguide.
I also talk to the GP as to whether he is a doc, an easternized doc or a con. If I want to see a chinese physician, I would want to go to someone who has excellent credentials, probably from some prestigious TCM colleges in PRC.
Once you step into his clinic observing what he has in the room plus when he starts opening his mouth, you know how to type cast him!
Also, I think a jack of all trades is a master of none.
The GDIAup should just be a hobby like pursuit rather than the raison detre of the western medicine practice.
I would think very few would ever consider it the raison d'etre of western medical practice. It makes no logical sense if I said the reason for my existence as a western medical doctor is to learn acupuncture!
Anyway that one is a general guide lah. uglybaldie you must remember you are the typical old person in Singapore. Remember "A fool is born every minute" you're not one of those!
As with all general guides, it doesn't make you any good. Just puts you on the right track. In the end you must know how to deal with the exceptions and different patients to become a good GP!
People like you lah uglybaldie. Another important point in sales and in everything, ask more questions, learn more about the customer's needs and wants and you'll then be able to better serve them.
I personally hate those sales people who talk and talk, never ask me questions, don't know what I need....end up trying to sell me something that doesn't meet my needs or wants. What for? Ask first!
Hee Hee,
"Another important point in sales and in everything, ask more questions, learn more about the customer's needs and wants and you'll then be able to better serve them."
You run the risk of the patients calling you Dr. Kaypoh once they leave your clinic!
How to find out what your patient wants in a quiet, discrete manner so you can effect the best cure for him and yet maintain a professional facade. Now, that is the key to a successful practice.
Looks are important too! Some doctors really look professional. Cool, smart and good looking. Taciturn but friendly. Not inquisitive and gossipy as if he's selling a used car. Preferably With specks of white hair at the temples to show seniority and experience. Some looks like your friendly neighbourhood wet market fishmonger. Guess who gets more business?
"Some looks like your friendly neighbourhood wet market fishmonger."
eh but then my boss is like that. He wear singlet to work! And yet all the rich patients go and see him leh.
Anyway it's all about the X-factor lah. Whatever works!
What works for doctor A may not work for doctor B. Sometimes patients may think twice going for anti-aging advice from an old looking doctor with white hair don't you think?
It all depends lah.
Hee hee. Nowadays I having more fun liao. Dun be too serious about work lah. It's just GP work NOT doctor work! Woo hoo!
Er...doc.
Can you stop reading the anime comics?
Why?
Anyway u don't read anime. U read manga. You watch anime.
I used to read a lot fo DC, Marvel, Image, Independent comics from USA/UK as a teenager. Now all those comics are being made into blockbuster movies!
LOL!
Gosh,talking about homeopathy.I would suggest Oz not to even think about it. Once I had a boy with super infected toenail and needs surgery, parents are both into homeopathy. I send them off to GP for antibiotics prior partial nail avulsion surgery. Guess what? His mom blew her top off me saying that I am 'infecting' her son's body with antibiotics for nothing -all just because a toe.She was fucking sarcastic saying that 'i have no idea about what homeopathty is all about..etc...' If it's scientific proven, I bet it would have mention somewhere along the course.CB!
Glad you took up acupuncture instead. It's quite a popular course for most allied health professionals here in Oz. Physios and pods are doing it. They even have the crash course on acupuncture in just 3 months.
But really, I don't think that acupucture can be learn within such a short time limit and with the practice so on.
Anyhow, is there any particular website that I can view on the course that you are doing?
cheers mate.
Oh, please stop ***king say you are the lousiest Dr. Annoys me man.There's a chinese saying, yi4 shan1 bi3 yi4 shan1 gao1.
Dear flatfeet,
You see this is where I have learnt to excel. There are people with various beliefs and inclinations.
For the homeopathy folks you mentioned I would have talked to them on what they wanted to hear! Use Traumeel, Belladonna-Homaccord, Lacehsis and Pyrogenium instead.
Basically acknowledge their ideas, concerns and expectations and then discuss on a comfortable level to "integrate" everything together.
In the end sometimes it's not that they don't want antibiotics (sometimes it is) but it's that they just want to recognition that they are not stupid or crazy etc.
Homeopathy as you know involved the use of preparations which are of millions of dilutions. So it's very very safe chemically. So what's the harm in using homeopathy from a medical point of view? It's harmless. Of course the homeopathy practitioners would tell you otherwise.
So better to be jack of all trades, able to speak the lingo and jargon of all kinds of practitioners and you can deal with any patient!
Cool!
My aunt studied acupuncture full time for 5 years and went to a college (dunno where) in PRC to further her study. Personally I think she's heaps better than all the western docs I've been to.
I've alopecia areata and when I was living in Sg none of the docs I went to could tell me what's causing the hair loss, they just put it down to too much MSG in my diet (one even said it's due to lack of vitamin and sold me a bottle of "special" vitamins for $100 I was only a naive 13 yrs old and fell for it stupid me). When I came to Aust my GP referred me to see the dermatologist for a suspicious-looking mole and she told me the big bald patch on top of my head is due to alopecia areata and that there's no cure and she could only inject steroid into my scalp and hope for the best but it might get worse. My hair usually grows back but this particular bald patch had persisted for 5 months and only got bigger with time. I thought I would end up getting a wig but didn't want steroid in my scalp. Anyway 3 months later when I was visiting my aunt she saw the bald patch and said she could fix it. She put 6 needles around the bald patch and left for 20 mins, twice a day, my hair started growing back 3 days later and I haven't have another hair loss episode since 2000 (I used to get 2-3 bald patches a year)! :D
My mum had a fracture in her tibia from skiing accident. After they removed the plaster cast she went to physio almost everyday and was told she'll be on clutches for the next 4 weeks. My aunt did acupunture on her for 3 days and 2 days later she could walk without the clutches. It's amazing.
I hope you do well. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine are not alternative medicine. If practiced properly they can work very well.
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