Ed Gotfried, D.O.,
associate professor
of surgery and OU
special attache', at the
Temple of Heaven
in Beijing, China.
The Temple of Heaven
was built in 1420.

Ed Gotfried, D.O., associate professor of surgery, was charged with a rather hefty responsibility last spring. He represented Ohio University as a special attaché when President Robert Glidden, Ph.D., could not make a trip to China.

     The fruits of Gotfried’s labor should soon make OU and OU-COM national pioneers in teaching Traditional Chinese Medicine. Gotfried and Xiao Chen, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical sciences, who is providing translation help, are collaborating with a consortium of 11 Chinese medical schools to publish the first practical English textbook dealing exclusively with TCM. Chen says he thinks the input from a physician is needed to best translate the medical terms, but his past experience translating documents from Chinese will help the process.

     “The difficulty is twofold,” Chen says. “First, there are different medicine theories and principles which need to be understood. Second, is the need to make a translation that keeps fidelity to the original Chinese text but in a way that is easiest for English-speaking students to understand.”

     OU Press will publish the textbook.

     “The text was modeled on how we teach in problem-based or case-based learning,” Gotfried says. “It’s interesting — the government of China views TCM as a cultural treasure, and they want to export it.”

     The idea for the textbook came after it became clear the original Chinese text — written in three volumes by different faculty members of each of the Chinese universities in the consortium — would be too unwieldy for use by Western medical students if merely translated into English. Gotfried’s experience as an acupuncturist and knowledge of TCM allowed him to realize very quickly that an English version of the Chinese text would be over the heads of Western medical students, nearly all of whom have no formalized training in discerning the symbolic and metaphorical nature of some Chinese diagnoses and treatments. So Gotfried suggested a revision.

     “The Consortium of Traditional Chinese Medicine Colleges and the Chinese government wanted it to be the “Bible” of TCM — one that western medical students could pick up and say, ‘We want to know something about it. Let’s go to this text,’” he says.

     Gotfried says he anticipates two editions — one for medical students and one for the lay public — will be published. The textbook for medical students will be published in three volumes, hopefully, this year, says Gotfried.

     The textbook represents quite a coup for OU-COM, considering that virtually nothing in China — whether it is grain, medical textbooks or star basketball players — can leave without government approval.

     “There is no other American university that has this arrangement with the government and consortium,” Gotfried says. “We are the only institution that has this ability to interact with the group of 11 with the sanction of the government.”

     The TCM textbook project resulted from the efforts and persistence of Bruce Dubin, D.O., J.D., former associate dean of information and planning, who initiated the project while in China. “Bruce Dubin was farsighted enough to see that this sort of thing could happen,” says Gotfried.

     The association between OU-COM and the Chinese government comes at a time of increased acceptance of the validity of TCM. Gotfried noted a current Harvard Medical School study, using acupuncture as the sole treatment for high blood pressure, was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Early reports indicate the treatment is providing impressive results.

     “So for scientists who say ‘prove it,’ there is our mission in Hong Kong and enough literature beginning to surface now that will prove that it does work,” Gotfried says.

     “So we should be teaching our kids, exposing them to it. I just want them to open their minds.”

[Editor’s note: Bruce Dubin is now associate dean of academic affairs at Edward V. Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, Va.]