In less than a month, Bob Gotfried, D.O., associate professor of family medicine, takes a group of five medical students to Beijing, China, on a month-long program studying traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). While there, the students will attend Guang An Men Hospital of the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, making rounds and learning TCM fundamentals. The program was initiated by Ed Gotfried, Bob’s father, while serving as special attaché for Ohio University in place of President Robert Glidden, Ph.D. This 2002 trip also bore fruition in OU-COM’s TCM textbook project.

TCM is hot in the West and, especially, in the United States.

“So many people have expressed an interest in traditional Chinese medicine,” Ed Gotfried, D.O., says. “When you see the same techniques as used in Western medicine and the Chinese have been doing them for centuries, you realize they’re not new. They’re ancient practice — they’re tradition.”

Gotfried, associate professor of surgery and acupuncture practitioner, is in the midst of helping create that TCM textbook ­— The Foundations of Chinese Medicine — for use by the lay public and medical students alike.

“Our TCM textbook project came about because of the efforts of former Associate Dean Bruce Dubin, D.O., J.D., who laid the foundation for our current efforts,” says Gotfried.

From acupuncture to Chinese herbs to Tuina massage, TCM is on the rise, he says.

Gotfried says there is a demand for alternative medicine from the general public, noting their dissatisfaction with some aspects of Western medicine.

“People are spending more and more on alternative medicine,” he says. “The numbers keep increasing.”

Gotfried’s efforts and determination are helping to position OU-COM as a national pioneer in teaching TCM. With translation help of Xiao Chen, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical sciences and Edison Biotechnology Institute principal investigator, the textbook will be completed in collaboration with a consortium of 11 Chinese medical schools. This textbook will be the first practical English textbook dealing exclusively with TCM.

The textbook will hit the shelves as soon as the chapters — written by faculty members of the Chinese medical schools — are translated from what Gotfried refers to as “Chinglish,” or Chinese mixed with English, to English.

“The book is finished; it’s now being rewritten,” he says. “We need to rewrite it in a format that is more compatible with the way we teach. We’re about one-quarter of the way there.”

Gotfried says there is so much to learn from ancient Chinese medicine.

“The current buzz word now is ‘holistic medicine,’” he says. “The Chinese have been practicing holistic medicine for centuries, and we think we’ve found something new?”

“People want a more active role in health care, and they don’t find it in Western medicine.”

The Foundations of Chinese Medicine will be available for lay people everywhere, stressed Gotfried.

“There is an appeal, not only for satisfying that audience but, more importantly, to expand the minds of our medical students so they recognize there’s more than one way to treat disease,” he says.

“OU-COM students are the prime audience for this textbook. But I think this can be the foundation textbook not only for our medical students, but for medical students everywhere.”

The Foundations of Chinese Medicine will be published by the Ohio University Press.