Pacific College Alumni - Meeting Minutes

ALUMNI MEETING
DATE: Thursday November 7, 2002
TIME: 5:30-7:30pm

Symposium Site/Rm. 308

PRESENT: Stacy Gomes, Jack Miller, Moshe Heller NY, Shelley Werner, Fawsi Murra, Saundra Dougherty, Peg Murray, Jack Gorfien (NY), Uma Bhatnagar (NY), Linda Lyman, Courtney Beddow (SD), Eva Cotder (SD), Andrea Beth Damsky, Donna McAdams, Stephen Gottlieb, Eric Hellander (NY), John Elliott, Louise Bates, Gail Rothfeld (NY), Martha McAdams (NY), Edward Lee (NY), Joe Voss (NY), Regina Aguilara, Daniel Sperling, Kim Davis, Susan Siokos, Jo Walker, Diane Price (NY), Bina Nussli (NY), Linda Harris, Bard Widmar, Ana deVedia, Ted Kaptchuk

HANDOUTS: Minutes 10/28/01, Doctor of Acupuncture of OM, Doctor of Acupuncture and OM Faculty, Curriculum outline and sequence of courses, PCOM Website Welcome page.

Welcome from Jack Miller

1) Overview of the Doctoral Program
The college chose the topics within Integrative Medicine Specialties (ortho-neuro, geriatrics, and mental health) courses based on the resources of its faculty, its outside clinical affiliations and the opportunities these specialties present to practitioners of Chinese Medicine.

For three semesters prior to advancement to doctoral candidacy, each doctoral student will take courses in the following tracks:

1) Integrative Medicine Specialties
2) Application of Chinese Classics
3) Chinese Medical Chinese Language & Culture
4) Evidence-based Medicine
5) Integrated Clinical Correlations, and Clinical Study and Research

Following advancement to doctoral candicacy, the student will chose one of three concentration areas to devote their time on for their capstone project:

• Integrative Medicine (Neuromuscular Medicine, Geriatrics, or Mental Health)
• Advanced TCM Classics
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Clinical Research

We are pleased to announce the addition of three new doctoral faculty, Tantan Huang, Chair of Doctoral Studies, Jiang Zheng, and Yuan Wang, who are currently working with our Master’s degree students and preparing doctoral curriculum.
One of the concerns from ACAOM was that the DAOM was too much like the Master’s program and that it would be best to set the program up especially for the ‘Doctoral Students’. There was also more work done on clarifying the clinical setting and outcomes.

Alumni asked about the projected schedule:

Each semester to be 15 weeks. Nine weeks of school 3 nights per week/on the weeks when there are classes there are 5 weekends. Friday night – 6 hours on Saturday and Sunday/ 1 hour shifts of clinic per week. More case based – very few or no tests. Integrated Clinical Correlation’s – 1/2 day each week with mentor/3 cases for semester/write up report.

2) Stacy Gomes introduced Ruth McCarty, Alumni (2001) Guest Speaker

Ruth discussed how she obtained full privileges at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).

Her Timelines of Practice:
1) Treatment of her 1st patient in Aliso Viejo Health Center
2) Applied for privileges at CHOC in June, 2002
3) Presented Grand rounds in May, 2002 at CHOC in Orange “Traditional Chinese Medicine”
4) Ventilation system installed at Aliso Clinic to quell complaints about burning moxa
5) Privileges at Healthbridge Rehabilitation Hospital in 2002
6) Received Shaw Foundation Clinical Grant for Non-Traditional Pain Management at CHOC at Mission in September, 2002
7) Privileges at CHOC in Orange County pending
8) Western Practitioners believe that CAM therapy is predominantly anecdotal

Ruth currently works in Oncology at Children’s Hospital in Orange County and is involved in an evidence-based research study on decreasing the use of pain medication and increasing recovery time for tonsillectomy patients using TCM.