Volume 9, Number 2 | Summer 2014

Report on Visit to AIMC
A Letter from the Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine
College (AIMC) in Berkeley, USA

Kazunari Ozaki*1) and Mitsuru Kageyama2)3)4)

1) Department of Geriatric Medicine, Itami City Hospital,
Itami, Hyogo, Japan
2) Kageyama Clinic, Sakai, Osaka, Japan
3) Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine,
Osaka, Japan
4) Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Kyoto
University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan

Introduction: In Western countries, complementary
and alternative medicine (CAM) is very popular. In
the last several decades, traditional medicine in
Asian countries has been developing as a type of
CAM. Under these circumstances, the problem is
how to position Kampo medicine, which is lagging
behind in terms of international strategy. We had an
opportunity to visit the Acupuncture and Integrative
Medicine College (AIMC) (President & CEO: Yasuo
Tanaka) located in Berkeley, California USA in
September 2013. We report the current status oftraditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the USA
compared with the internationalization of Kampo
medicine.

Furthermore, 83% of those above had alreadyconsulted

physicians

of

the

modernWestern

medicine. The total expenditure incurred for CAM(13.7 billion dollars) was also higher than that spentout of pocket for all hospitalizations that year (12.8billion dollars). These suggest that the current
status of modern Western medicine does not always
meet the demands of patients. Since then, researchin the field of CAM has intensified, and in 1999, theOAM was promoted to the National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM),
which seems to be commissioning various studies
related to CAM to multiple institutions including
Harvard University and the University of California.
Although some institutions have introduced CAM
into their medical education, in terms of the so-called
traditional

medicine

inacupuncture-moxibustion

East
and

Asia

utilizingdecoctions,i.e.,traditional medicine in the Western Pacific Region[2], education in acupuncture-moxibustion schools in
the USA is based on TCM, and not on Kampo
medicinecurrently

practiced

in

Japan

nor

traditional Korean medicine practiced in South
Korea. However, there are a few Korean schools
whereacupuncture-moxibustionof

traditional

Korean medicine is taught. There are absolutely no(1) Overview of traditional Chinese medicine in theUSA
In the USA, the National Institute of Health(NIH) established a special office for alternative
medicine, namely, the Office of Alternative Medicine(OAM), in 1992 and initiated active involvement in
the alternative medicine research, promoting CAM
research. In the year after the establishment of the
OAM, Eisenberg et al. at Harvard University
conducted “a survey of utilization rate of CAM in theUSA” with 1,539 American citizens aged 18 years orolder, and reported that approximately one third of
the respondents utilized at least one type of CAM in
the previous year and that the highest use was bynonblack persons aged 25 to 49 years, who wererelatively more educated and had higher incomes [1].

schools where education is based mainly on Kampo
medicine used in Japan. Only at AIMC located inBerkeley, California [3], which we visited in this trip,
Japanese acupuncture-moxibustion is taught inparallel

with

TCM.

Promotional

activitiesofJapanese acupuncture-moxibustion and Kampo
medicine in the USA have originated from this school.
Details of AIMC are described in the latter half of
this paper. In the USA, qualifying examinations for
acupuncture-moxibustion
supervised

by

the

practitioners
National

are

Certification

Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine(NCCAOM®) in 44 states and areas that participate
in the NCCAOM, but the states of California and
New York have their own qualifying examinations.
NCCAOM has issued approximately more than

The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

23

Volume 9, Number 2 | Summer 2014

21,000 licenses to practice acupuncture, oriental

Berkeley, and Dr. Yasuo Tanaka, President & CEO of

medicine, decoctions, and Tui Na since 1982. In thethe school, showed us around the school himself

state of California, approximately 500 applicants per(Figure 1).

year pass qualifying examinations held by the
Acupuncture Board, the Department of Consumer
Affairs, which are based on the state law, namely, theAcupuncture Licensure Act. As described above,
education in each acupuncture-moxibustion school ismostly based on TCM, and qualifying examinations
conducted in each state are also based on TCM.
Textbooks have been improved, and a few of them
are at a high level, comparable to those in China. For
example, explanations in books by Bensky et al. [4][5] and by Mitchel et al. [6] are excellent. Almost all

Kampo products in the USA are extract products.
They are handled as health foods and can beavailable at pharmacies and drugstores to somedegree. However, no one at conventional stores
knows how to use them. Therefore, acupuncturemoxibustion practitioners usually prescribe them at

Figure 1[The above photo]
President Yasuo Tanaka (middle) showed Dr.
Kageyama (left) and Ozaki (right) around the
AIMC himself.

acupuncture-moxibustion clinics and the patientspurchase them out of pocket. Many of the
manufacturers/sellers
Taiwaneseofcompanies

extract

products(Sun-ten,are

Ming-tong,Evergreen, etc.), and some of them already have anearly 40-year history. In the USA, “Medicare” and“Medicaid” are public insurance; however, transition
to private health insurance is recommended, andsome insurance plans in America’s Health Insurance
Plans seem to cover acupuncture-moxibustion andacupressure. However, in the USA, decisions in thehealthcare administration are not made purely fromthe viewpoint of medical welfare, and political andeconomicinterference

in

the

healthcare

administration seems to be causing confusion.
(2) Visit to AIMC (Acupuncture and Integrative
Medicine College)of

The authors participated in the World Congress[The above photos]

ChineseThe classrooms at the AIMC

Medicine(WCCM)

2013

held

on

September 21 and 22 in Santa Clara, California [7].
During the trip, we stopped by at AIMC located in

24

The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

Volume 9, Number 2 | Summer 2014

AIMC is located in downtown Berkeley, California,

AIMC

Berkeleyoffersarigorous

andwith a great access to public transportation.

comprehensive education in Traditional ChineseStudentsa

Medicine and Integrative Medicine. Their program

progressive culture, a casual urban environment,

allows students to first build a strong foundation indiverse education environment nearby UC Berkeley

theory, and then put the students’ knowledge into

campus, and close proximity to San Francisco, apractice in their clinical internship courses. Theirrevitalized Oakland, and Silicon Valley (8).

curriculum

enjoy

a

Mediterranean

climate,We provide a brief history of AIMC. The AIMC

has

six

distinctsubject

areas:

Acupuncture, Western Biomedicine, Integrative

formerly known as Meiji College of Oriental

Medicine,

Herbology,

Medicine (MCOM) was established in San Francisco

Professional Practice.

Oriental

Medicineand

in 1990 by the Meiji School of Oriental Medicine in

AIMC students performed very well in theJapan and its alumni. In January 1999, the school

qualifying examinations based on the state law, therelocated to Berkeley. In 2002, Dr. Shuji Goto

Acupuncture Licensure Act. The pass rate of the 1st(chairperson of GOTO College of Medical Arts andtime takers in the August 2012 examination result

Sciences) was assigned to be a chairman of the board

was 100% (based on a document from California

for the MCOM. In April 2003 the name of the school

Acupuncture Board [Department of Consumer

was changed to Acupuncture and Integrative

Affairs]) (9).

Medicine College (AIMC) and new management has
started under the new chairman's leadership.
AIMC

is

grantedmoxibustion schools in Japan, students in the USA

Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture andare serious for economic reasons.” We realized that

Orientalthemany of the college students in the USA are living

recognized accrediting agency for freestanding

an independent life in dormitories or apartments

institutions and colleges of acupuncture or Oriental

away from their parents’ home, even when their

medicine that offer such programs. The ACAOM iscolleges are within a commutable distance from thethe national accrediting agency recognized by thehome, and that many students use scholarships andU.S. Department of Education to accredit Master's-

student loans to pay for tuition and are also

level programs in the acupuncture and Oriental

economically independent.

(ACAOM),

which

by

CEO, Tanaka, “Unlike students in acupuncturethe

Medicine

accreditation

We were impressed with the words of President &ismedicine profession.
As described above, education in acupuncture-

Additional remark: We have described above, anmoxibustion schools in the USA is based on TCM;

overview of traditional Chinese medicine in the USA

however, only in this school, Japanese acupuncture-and our visit to AIMC. The history of how the so-moxibustion are taught in parallel with TCM, andcalled traditional medicine in East Asia was spreadpromotional activities of Japanese acupuncture-mainly by Overseas Chinese in the West Coast andmoxibustion and Kampo medicine in the USA have

New York, or through Japan and the Netherlands tostarted from this school (Figure 2). There are

Europe, is very interesting; however, it has been

approximately 150 students with 30 to 40 students

omitted due to limitations of space. We would like to

per grade. We heard that on an average, they study

present it at another time in this journal.

for more than 3,300 hours in 4 years. The curriculum
is equally divided into 3 parts: modern medicine,
acupuncture-moxibustion, and decoctions.

The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

25

Volume 9, Number 2 | Summer 2014

Postscript: Part of this manuscript was presented
at the 65th Annual Meeting of Japan Society for
Oriental Medicine (Tokyo, June 29, 2014). The
authors have no conflict of interest to be disclosed.

Figure 2[The left above] The single crude drug products on the shelves at the AIMC.
[The right above] The acupuncture and moxibustion instruments in the cabinet at the AIMC.
[The left below] The conventional crude drug products on the shelves at the AIMC.
[The right below] The cabinets for classification of drugs at the AIMC.

26

The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

Volume 9, Number 2 | Summer 2014

1

Eisenberg DM. et al. Unconventional medicine in the5

Bensky, D. , et al. : Chinese Herbal Medicine:
Materia Medica (Third Edition). Seattle, Eastland
Press, 2004

6

Zhang Zhong Jing, Shang Han Lun On Cold Damage:

United States. NewEngland Journal of Medicine. 328,
246-252, 1993.
2

World Health Organization, Regional Office for theWestern Pacific, “WHO International Standard

Translation and Commentaries, Translated and edited byTerminologies in Traditional Medicine in the Western

Mitchell C., Ye Feng, Wiseman N, Brookline, MA:

Pacific Region”, World Health Organization, Western

Paradigm Publications, 746 pages, 1999.

<http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/14B298C6-

Homepage of the WCCM2013<http://www.2013wccm.com/>. [the last date of

518D-4C00-BE02-

access Jan. 30,2014]

Pacific Region, Manila, 2007, available from

FC31EADE3791/0/WHOIST_26JUNE_FINAL.pdf>.

7

8[the last date of access Jan. 30,2014][the last date of access June30,2014]
3

4

Homepage of the Acupuncture and Integrative
Medicine College (AIMC). https://www.aimc.edu/[the last date of access Jan. 30,2014]

Homepage of the AIMC < https://www.aimc.edu/>.

9

Data from California Acupuncture Board

Scheid, V., et al. : Chinese Herbal Medicine:Formulas &(Department of Consumer Affairs)<
http://www.acupuncture.ca.gov/about_us/materia
ls/20130219.pdf >[the last date of access Jan.

Strategies (pharmacy science) (2nd ed.). Seattle,

30,2014]

Eastland Press, 2009

The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

27