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AOM Leaders Meeting 2015
AOM LEADERS MEETING 2015
On March 14, 2015, the leaders of eight AOM organizations (AOML organizations) met in Columbia, MD at the invitation of the Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (CCAOM). The Council has hosted this annual event since 2005 to inform its own strategic plan and to provide a forum for these leaders to engage in dialogue on a broad range of subjects of mutual interest concerning the AOM profession. The following organizations participated in this year’s meeting: Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACAOM), American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AAAOM), American Organization for Bodywork Therapies of Asia (AOBTA), Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (CCAOM), Council of State Associations (CSA), National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM), National Federation of Chinese TCM Organizations (NFCTCMO), and Society for Acupuncture Research (SAR).
The 22 representatives who attended the meeting this year considered a broad range of topics. In the legislative arena, there was discussion about the challenges presented by other health care professions who practice dry needling and the efficacy of strategies the AOM profession has employed in addressing this issue. Reference was also made to pending legislation in California (AB 758) concerning the authority of the California Acupuncture Board in relation to SB 1246 (Chapter 397), which was signed into law in September of 2014 requiring ACAOM accreditation beginning in January 2017. Interest was expressed in the creation of a web platform to centralize acupuncture practice act and other regulatory information. At the federal level, the leaders discussed the gainful employment regulations of the U.S. Department of Education and the need to keep AOM practitioners better informed about the interest and efforts of the AOML organizations to promote gainful employment for AOM graduates. The meeting attendees also discussed the possibility of petitioning the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to issue a national coverage decision (NCD) for acupuncture in relation to specified health conditions, as well as the status of legislative efforts by AAAOM to obtain coverage for acupuncture under various federal health benefit programs.
In the area of AOM education, ACAOM announced its intent to open a discussion within the profession about what categories of information the Commission should make publicly available concerning ACAOM approved schools. The AOML group identified a number of procedural mechanisms the profession might employ to obtain consensus regarding possible discontinuation of the use of the terminology “Oriental” medicine and to clarify the often confusing nomenclature associated with the multiple educational degrees that exist within the profession.
The meeting addressed relationships among the attending organizations in the context of recent outreach to the profession by the Acupuncture Now Foundation and the possibility of collaboration within the profession to develop a website akin to Discover Chiropractic (http://www.discoverchiropractic.org). An update was provided regarding the status of negotiations between AAAOM and CSA in the area of professional structure, with both organizations indicating they are moving forward on separate tracks at this time.
The CCAOM provided information to the meeting attendees about the forthcoming 7th edition of the CNT Manual, which will be entitled CCAOM Clean Needle (CNT) Technique Manual (7th Edition)—Best Practices for Acupuncture Needle Safety and Related Procedures. The Council expects to post the manual on its website in late May of this year as a PDF file for universal access. Further details about the content of the manual, its availability in various formats, and the CNT course will be referenced in a forthcoming interview in Acupuncture Today.
The annual AOM leaders meeting this year was again characterized by collegial discussions concerning important developments currently affecting the profession and future opportunities. Because the Council hosts this meeting principally to inform its own strategic plan, meeting invitations are extended to those organizations whose missions generally parallel that of CCAOM, particularly in the area of support for national standards of education, training, and certification for the profession. At this year’s meeting, the Council solicited and indicated it would take into consideration recommendations from the AOML attendees about the possible participation of other organizations at a future meeting. From the Council’s perspective, such participation would need to be consistent with the purpose of the meeting, productive of a collegial discussion and potential collaborative opportunities, and reflect significant congruence in organizational mission.
Representatives from the following national organizations attended the AOML meeting this year (listed in alphabetical order by organization):
| ORGANIZATION | REPRESENTATIVE |
| AAAOM | Michael Jabbour, CSP, MS, LAc (Immediate Past President) Carlos Chapa, LAc, DiplOM (NCCAOM), PhD (Treasurer)Steve Stumpf, EdD (Candidate-Public Director of Board) |
| ACAOM |
John Paul Liang, PhD, MSOM, LAc (Chair) Mark McKenzie, LAc, MsOM, DiplOM (NCCAOM) (Executive Director) |
| AOBTA | Wayne Mylin, Dipl. ABT (NCCAOM), AOBTA-CP (President) Deborah Overholt, Dipl. ABT (NCCAOM), AOBTA-CI, NJ MBT (Legislative Director) |
| CCAOM |
Jason Wright, MS, LAc (President) Misti Oxford-Pickeral, BS, MAc, AP (FL) (Vice-President) Barbara Ellrich, MA (Treasurer) Yun Kim, EdD (Secretary) Stacy Gomes, EdD (At-Large) Megan Haungs, MS, LAc (At-Large) Todd Knudsen, DC, DACBR (At-Large) Kris LaPoint, PhD, LAc (At-Large) David Sale, JD, LLM (Executive Director) |
| CSA | David W. Miller, MD, FAAP, LAc, DiplOM (NCCAOM) (Chair) Eric Raymond Buckley, DOM, LAc, DiplOM (NCCAOM) (Vice-Chair) |
| NCCAOM | Eugene London, DAOM, DiplAc (NCCAOM), LAc (Chair) Kory Ward-Cook, PhD, CAE (CEO) |
| NFCTCMO | Yemeng Chen, PhD, LAc, FICAE (Board) |
| SAR | Vitaly Napadow, PhD, LAc (Co-President) |
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