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.
- 30 -
News for
the week of May 16 – May 21
