The patient is right in the middle. Squashed between two opposing forces. In no way are we focused on the patient. So, I would propose, which I proposed 12 years ago, that instead of that kind of oppositional model, we think in terms of who acupuncture belongs to. Acupuncture doesn't belong to the acupuncture profession or the medicine profession.
Acupuncture belongs to the patient.
If we all focus on what will make acupuncture more acceptable to people who need acupuncture, which is doing what professions do to mature, we're not doing proper health care. I am concerned about scope protection, keeping things to ourselves, not letting other people practice it. What I see the profession doing now is discussing how we can very carefully craft the profession so that nobody can do it but us. I cannot see this helping patients. We have to go back to our roots, start the discussion over again, and realize the acupuncture does not belong to our profession or to medical profession.