706 THE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE Volume 10, Number 4, 2004, pp. 706–710 © Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Integrating Chinese Traditional Medicine into a U.S. Public Health Paradigm JAMES GIORDANO, Ph.D., 1–4 MARY K. GARCIA, Dr.P.H., L.Ac., 4,5 and GEORGE STRICKLAND, Ph.D. 3 ABSTRACT Chinese traditional medicine (CTM) is a health care system with an extensive history of practical clinical experience. The foundation of CTM, while relatively simple, is substantively different from much of allopathic medicine. Such differences are difficult to explain using a Western medical vocabulary, and extend beyond lin- guistic foundations. This proves challenging when trying to identify appropriate teaching and research meth- ods that are sensitive to the CTM paradigm and yet relevant to a public health orientation. Given the increased use of CTM, it becomes important to address possibilities that would ensure successful integration of CTM into a public health framework. We propose a model in which both CTM and biomedical clinical services could be offered to provide diverse, yet truly integrative, therapeutic approaches. Within this model, it is critical to en- hance reciprocal educational and research-directed opportunities for both CTM practitioners and allopathic clin- icians. Considerable responsibility rests upon academic institutions in becoming proactive in developing and implementing educational curricula and research programs that illustrate more effectively the potential bilat- eral benefit(s), limitations, and, ultimately, roles that CTM and biomedical approaches may assume within an integrative system of care. BACKGROUND C hinese traditional medicine (CTM) is a health care sys- tem rooted in more than 2500 years of practical clini- cal experience. The main disciplines are acupuncture, her- bology, food therapy, tuina (manual therapy), t’ai chi (therapeutic exercise) and qigong (energy therapy; see Kaptchuk, 1983, for overview). Throughout this paper, Chi- nese traditional medicine (CTM) is used to describe the sys- tem of healing that embraces the broad sense of physical balance and constitution as a foundation of practice. In con- trast, the term Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), al- though widely and popularly used, actually refers to a style of practice originating in the 1950s at the behest of Mao Tse Tung as an effort to use some (but not all) of the CTM ap- proaches and selectively merge them, with particular em- phasis on rejection of energetics and constitutional appreci- ation. Thus, in the context of integrating Chinese healing systems into public health, CTM represents a more accurate description. The clinical frame of reference maintained by CTM is of- ten difficult to explain using Western medical terminology. Differences between Eastern and Western medicine extend beyond linguistic foundations, however, and the logical se- quencing underlying clinical decision making varies con- siderably between the two systems. In CTM, a symptom or sign can only be understood in terms of how it relates to the integrity of the whole patient, with particular consideration 1 Clinical Research and Integrative Medicine Programs, Moody Health Center, TCC, Pasadena, TX. 2 University of Texas, School of Public Health, Houston, TX. 3 Department of Health and Kinesiology, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX. 4 American College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, Houston, TX. 5 University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.