Acupuncture Technology News

Hello Friends,

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve no doubt seen some of the excellent case studies submitted by Dr. Chris Teo. He runs a cancer care clinic in Malaysia that specializes in treating cancer with herbs and energy medicine. AcuGraph is an important tool Dr. Teo uses to monitor patient progress and adjust treatment.

Today’s case is a very rare cancer called Pseudomyxoma Peritonei. This cancer spreads to the body cavity and fills the belly with jelly-like fluid. Dr. Teo treated the patient for 8 months and tracked progress in this interesting case.

Part one of the write up gives the background and case history. Part two discusses treatment progress and results. It’s worth a read.

Read Part One Here

Read Part Two Here

Thanks, Dr. Teo for another excellent contribution!

Wow…I can’t believe it’s already been a year since we were in San Diego! We’re packing our bags this week and heading to California for the Pacific Symposium. We’re looking forward to some FABULOUS San Diego weather.

Hopefully, you are planning to attend the Pacific Symposium this year so we can get re-acquainted. It won’t be hard to find Adrian and me at the Catamaran Hotel, because we actually have TWO booths for you to enjoy this year—one for AcuGraph and the other for Auriculo 3D.

Have you read about us in Acupuncture Today recently? I just published a couple of articles you might want to review.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve got my passport ready and I’m heading to Canada next week, eh? Eastern Canada is having their first Asian Integrative Medicine Symposium in Toronto—and Miridia Technology is excited to be an exhibitor. We want to support the team over at Asian Integrative Medicine, Inc. They have put a lot of effort into creating this event and are planning to make this an annual symposium.  Click on the link above or the picture below for more information. You’ll be excited to see a lot of BIG presenters in the world of TCM—such as Peter Deadman, Robert Chu and Honora Wolf!

This is a great opportunity for any practitioners in southeastern Canada or the northeastern section of the United States to come out and support this event. If you’ve been watching us online and in Acupuncture Today–but haven’t seen the AcuGraph or Auriculo PC in person, this is your chance!

I’ll be doing demonstrations all weekend long. Come by and say hello. We’ll have some great special offers at our booth as well.

I’ve not yet been to Canada–but I’m really looking forward to it.

According to a website that I found, the term “eh” has multiple meanings….

Eh? = what did you say?
Eh? = what do you think?
EH? = something to say just to end a sentence.
Ehhhh!! = WOW!!
EH!? = what do you mean?
Eh?? = your joking!!!??
EH!! = Hello… (your off in the distance!!!)
Eh! = sure!!

So, I’ll ask the question again:

Do you want to come and visit me in Toronto at the AIM Symposium, Eh? (What do you say? What do you think?)

Talk to you soon! Make sure you watch for the pictures I’ll be posting on Facebook—LIVE from Toronto!

Kimberly Thompson, L.Ac.

kimberly@miridiatech.com

As many of you know, a couple of weeks ago, Alan and I were in Florida for the FSOMA conference. We met some really great practitioners.

I would like to introduce you to two Florida practitioners. One already owned the AcuGraph and the second had been ‘stalking us’ on the blog, for about a year, while she was deciding whether or not to buy!

#1: Jo Ann came to our booth to get graphed just for fun. She already owned the AcuGraph and had some great information to share. Click her picture below to play the video!
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Ever since the Olympics started, I’ve been amazed to see how many World-class athletes come from humble beginnings.

We all want to make it to the big time, but even if we don’t, we celebrate those who overcome the odds and do!

I am excited to announce that our very own Kimberly Thompson has been published in Acupuncture Today!

Following is an  excerpt…

September, 2012, Vol. 13, Issue 09
Are You a Pulse Master?
By Kimberly Thompson, LAc, MSTOM

You’ve been there and so have I.

It was in my first diagnosis class in acupuncture school. Our assignment was to feel the patient’s pulse and report what we felt. I was gung-ho (or naïve) enough to volunteer first.

There I stood, eyes closed, concentrating on feeling something meaningful in that regular thumping heartbeat. To be honest, I had no idea what I was feeling, but I bravely put forth my best guess. Then, the instructor took the pulse and felt something completely different. I wondered if I would ever learn this bit of magic called pulse diagnosis…

Read the whole article here!

Congratulations Kimberly!  We’re proud of you! 

Hello Friends,

I know acupuncture means different things to different practitioners, but I’m pretty sure NO practitioner thinks a backside full of splinters is therapeutic. That’s precisely what you get if you sit on the fence too long. And I know at least one third of you are sitting on the fence right now. That CAN’T be comfortable.

OK, so what am I talking about this time?

Well, remember the practitioner survey we invited you to take a couple of weeks ago? (You can click on the link if you still haven’t taken it). We’ve had hundreds of responses so far, and we’ve learned some surprising things.

Read the rest of this entry »

Unless you’re a tourist attraction, or near one, summer is slow. Slow times are best used for analysis, reflection and planning. Early results of our 2012 Practitioner survey can help you do that!

(If you haven’t taken it yet, Click Here!)

One of the survey questions asked about practitioner gross income. When you were in school how much money did you imagine you’d be making per year? Are you making that much now? If you’re like most health care professionals, you left college with a mountain of debt, fully confident you’d easily make enough money to cover the payments. Then you were faced with the reality that building a successful practice is not easy!

Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning. I hope that your holiday weekend has been fabulous. Today’s blog is short and sweet.

I’d like to share an article that was written by one of our AcuGraph users in China. Matthew Scott writes regular articles that you may be interested in following. He is a professionally-trained Chinese-medicine practitioner from Australia. In 2000, Matthew moved to China for a few months to further his studies in Chinese medicine and never went back. I hope that you enjoy reading his article.

http://www.chinese-holistic-health-exercises.com/Chinese_Health_Tips-modern-acupuncture.html

I really love hearing from our AcuGraph practitioners. Do you write articles for your own or another blog? I want to know so that I can follow you! Please send me a note and let me know if you write articles too. Who knows, maybe you’ll be featured on our newsletter sometime as well.

Have a great day!

Kimberly Thompson, L.Ac.

kimberly@miridiatech.com

Recently, I received an e-mail from a practitioner who was considering purchasing an AcuGraph. She had a couple of really good questions for me. I’d like you to read my responses and tell me what you would add to my thoughts.

Background: This practitioner was responding to an e-mail which she received from me stating that my practice had doubled.

Question #1:

I’m interested in numbers. Telling me that your practice immediately doubled because you use the AcuGraph doesn’t really help me make a decision about the product. If you were seeing two patients a week, which then increased to four, that is doubling–but not really worth the costly investment. Can you tell me what doubling your practice means to you?

Question #2:

Secondly, what type of patients compose your practice? Seemingly, the AcuGraph could guide you to which meridian is involved in a painful situation, but what about fertility, weight loss, ADHD or autism?

My response…

Hello XXXXX,

I work for Miridia Technology three days a week, and treat patients in my private practice 2 days per week. This is a great balance for me, because it fulfills my need for research and continued educational growth, but it also allows me to treat patients regularly–which I really LOVE.

The growth of my practice since the AcuGraph came in two stages.

First:

When I first started working at Miridia, I allowed myself to treat 5 patients a week. Just enough to stay in touch with patients as I began this new endeavor. I immediately incorporated the AcuGraph into my private practice and used it as a “patient education tool.” Within a couple of months my practice doubled. That doesn’t sound like too much, does it? Going from  5 to 10 patients isn’t that big of a deal.

Second:

After about a year and a half, I had a paradigm shift. Finally, I realized that the AcuGraph was more than just a patient education tool. It was quite a transition for me. Once I made the transition, my patients started getting better twice as fast and my referral rate doubled. Currently, I am treating approximately 20 patients per week in my two-day a week practice. If a new patient called today, it would take 2.5 to 3 weeks to get in.

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I’ve been spending some time lately reading various acupuncture blogs, news lists, and forums. (Do you do that too?) There’s lots of great information out there and much to be learned. As you might guess, posts about technology in acupuncture always catch my eye and I especially like to see how other practitioners integrate technology into their acupuncture practices.

After years of watching this topic, I’ve noticed that opinions really fall into three categories. But I’ve also noticed a certain trend about these categories you might find interesting. Of course, this is completely non-scientific and really just my opinion, but I want to know what you think of it. So here are the opinion groups:

1. Acupuncture and technology should NEVER mix. These are the purists who not only disagree with the use of modern tools, but often are actually offended that such tools even exist. “The ancient Chinese had only pulses and needles, and doggone it, that’s all I need.” (I never mention to them that those needles were stone, and now we use stainless steel. I don’t want to start a fight.) Believe it or not, this attitude is often prevalent among students–I’m guessing because they are so steeped in the basics they’re learning in school. Regardless, this is a group I find perplexing because they embrace technology in all other areas of life. I mostly just consider them devoted, but misguided.

2. Acupuncture tools are really just Toys. This group accepts the “gadgets” as they call them, but only as show and tell items to impress patients. All the serious work is still done with pulse, tongue and books. Having a few gadgets may help out now and then, and they’re OK to play with, but that’s not real acupuncture. This group gets my attention for two reasons. First, the “gadgets” cost the same whether you treat them as toys or tools. And second, this group tends to like the gadgets and buy more of them, all the while considering them not serious parts of practice. Some of our customers fall into this category.

3. Acupuncture is enhanced by modern technology. This group buys and uses the “gadgets” as tools–making them an integral and important part of practice. This group tends to appreciate and understand the ancient wisdom, but also recognizes the value of modern technology in guiding treatment decisions and making important information more accessible. This group tends to have a very broad scope of practice to match their broad-minded approach to healthcare.

Now, I told you that to tell you this (and I want your opinion):

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Okay, I’m a “Big Picture” kind of guy. In other words, I like to see all the details, from the start to the finish! When it comes to being proficient with the AcuGraph Dr. Larsen has created a simple progression that will help you become an “AcuGraph-Master.”

Like most electronic purchases, we have a conditioned need to “plug the thing in and watch it work!” We come by this tendency honestly…just think of how home appliances were marketed for the past 50 years.

Mastering the AcuGraph isn’t difficult as long as you take it step by step. So let’s take a minute and go over the 3 steps to learning how to maximize your investment.

Step #1 – Beginner   

Read the rest of this entry »

Enjoy the clip!

We’d love your feedback!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QicmybM40M

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That title sounded a little bold, didn’t it? I’m not sure how many of you know, but I’m a mother of 9 children. I have used that question with my kids so many times over the years–mostly when all of them are attacking me with hundreds of questions all at once. Sometimes I just want to yell out: “WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!?!”

Today, I ask the question to you, not out of frustration like I would with my kids, but with a sincere desire to know how I can continue to serve you through the blog. Right now I’m in planning mode for future blog posts and I need your help. To make it easy for you, I’ve got one very specific question that I’d like you to think about, and respond to with a single sentence. Sound easy enough?

Click on the link below to write your one sentence response.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME????

I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say. Thanks, and have a great week!

Read the rest of this entry »

You may recall that Kimberly wrote last month about graphs that are predominately green even though the patient is in very poor health. (See When “All Green” isn’t “All Good.”). In that article, she gave a case study and taught that very low graphs may show many normal meridians simply because everything is so low there’s no way to differentiate excess or deficiency.

Well, not to be outdone, our friend and researcher, Dr. Chris Teo, just published a study of 24 cases of cancer patients with low graphs. Each has remarkable findings, including low Qi and often splits related to the cancer areas. It’s a tremendously valuable resource for correlating health with graph readings, even when those readings are very low.

Dr. Teo continues to do groundbreaking research, even as he treats cancer patients in his Malaysia clinic, and we are deeply grateful for his contributions.

Click here to see Kimberly’s original article

Click here to see Dr. Teo’s study

Wishing you a great week,

–Dr. Larsen