Acupuncture for Resident Physicians
Joseph Helms, MD and Allen McDaniels, MD
UHS is distinguished as the first - and at present the only - US residency to offer comprehensive training in medical acupuncture during the residency program itself. Residents have the option of participating in the "Medical Acupuncture for Physicians" course, a 300-hour program taught through the Helms Medical Institute (HMI). The course director is Dr. Joseph Helms, world renowned expert in the field, who with his HMI clinical preceptor team has taught 6,000 physicians in this discipline during the past 30 years.
The medical acupuncture program at UHS offers the gold standard in acupuncture training for physicians. Its emphasis is on acute and chronic neuromusculoskeletal pain, and it provides skills that can be used immediately in the residency clinics. Graduates of the program become certified in medical acupuncture and are eligible to proceed with board certification by the American Board of Medical Acupuncture. Residents may use elective time over 12 to 18 months to complete the rigorous requirements of the acupuncture program. The acupuncture training is launched with an intensive weekend of clinical training, which has been preceded by 25 hours of home reading and video study. Participants are expected to follow a program of regular home study punctuated by observing and treating at the acupuncture clinic of the Johnson City Family Care Center. Treatments at the acupuncture clinic are supervised by Dr. Victor Elinoff and Dr. Janice Pegels, both qualified as mentors in the HMI approach. Participants conclude their training by participating in the third unit of the national HMI course, offered in Arizona in the spring and Washington, DC in the fall.
Visit www.HMIacupuncture.com for more information on the national HMI course.
