Event Outline
This event will define western medical acupuncture and explain how it relates to dry needling. A perspective of how WMA relates to the wider field of acupuncture and traditional East Asian medicine will b provided. The presentation will include information on the neurophysiological mechanisms of acupuncture and the big clinical data supporting acupuncture in chronic pain conditions. The different perspectives taken on the clinical evidence of acupuncture will be covered, including insights into how the recommendations of NICE vary within different chronic pain domains.
Learning outcomes
- Define WMA and how it relates to the wider field of acupuncture and traditional East Asian medicine
- Outline the local, segmental and general effects of acupuncture
- Appreciate that the anti-inflammatory effects of acupuncture may, in certain circumstances, be associated with reduced mortality in humans
- Describe the difference between the explanatory and pragmatic perspectives on the big clinical research data
- Understand how and why guidelines can differ despite being based on the same data sets
Speaker – Dr Mike Cummings
After completing his medical degree at Leeds, and several hospital jobs in the north of England, Mike joined the Royal Air Force for a six-and-a-half-year short service commission. A substantial portion of the workload for a general duties medical officer (GDMO) in the RAF is musculoskeletal medicine. Mike came across acupuncture by accident whilst working as a GDMO. He followed his interest in musculoskeletal medicine and acupuncture on retiring from military service, and finally found himself occupied full time in the field of acupuncture.
Mike has been Director of Education for the British Medical Acupuncture Society (BMAS) since 1997 and Medical Director since 2001. His role involves running the BMAS London Teaching Clinic (LTC), developing and running BMAS courses in Western medical acupuncture, acting as an associate editor for the Medline-listed journal Acupuncture in Medicine, and representing the BMAS at academic and political meetings.
Mike is an Honorary Clinical Specialist at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine. His principal academic and clinical interests are musculoskeletal pain, and in particular, needling therapies in the treatment of myofascial pain syndromes. He is a reviewer for Annals of Internal Medicine and has acted as a specialist adviser to NICE in the UK.
Chair – Rebekah Collins LRCC
Non-Members: £35. Please register and pay online here rcc-uk.org/rcc-events
Closing date – Thursday 13th June 2024, 5pm.