A student stands over a patient, needle poised. They have a “perfect” prescription: a textbook combination of points harvested from a lecture slide on chronic lower back pain. But as the needle meets the skin, the student hesitates - the symptom of a quiet habit that has taken hold of our profession. We routinely say we “prescribe” points. It sounds efficient. It echoes the authority of biomedical culture and fits neatly into the insurance field. But vocabulary is never neutral; repeated long enough, it dictates behavior.
Correction
In the December 2005 issue, Acupuncture Today published an article by Lisajeanne Potyk entitled "Eliminating Waste in Practice: Dr. Tan's Eight Magic Points for All Digestive Disorders." The article contained a sentence which appear as, "She is not the mother of a healthy, contented newborn." The sentence should have read, "She is now the mother of a healthy, contented newborn."
We offer our apologies to Ms. Potyk and our readers for the error.
In the January 2006 issue, Acupuncture Today reported on the status of several acupuncture bills, including Senate Bill 285, which was passedin Oregon and allows licensed acupuncturists to serve on the Oregon Pain Management Commission. In the original article, we had written that bill would require all licensed acupuncturists to complete a "pain management education program." Since that article appeared, we have been notified that only acupuncturists appointed to serve on the Pain Management Commission would be required to complete a pain management program, not every licensed acupuncturist in Oregon.
We apologize to our readers for any inconvenience this may have caused.