Report on ICMART XV WORLD CONGRESS OF MEDICAL ACUPUNCTURE, 25-27 MAY ATHENS・GREECE 2012 / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

The 15th international conference of ICMART was held from the 25th to 27th of May 2012 in Athens, Greece, under the theme of "The Point where all Different Ideas Meet."There were 210 participants. In addition to lectures on general subjects, eight topics were examined in depth during eight separate sessions. Ten workshops were held. The overall quality of the presentations appeared to be high. For visitors who were unable to attend some of the lectures because of lectures being held at the same times, the meeting time was managed in such a way that time for providing summarized explanations on the contents of all lectures was arranged every day. Furthermore, a questionnaire survey was conducted on visitors'motives for attending the conference and on the current situation of acupuncture in various countries. On the basis of the aggregate survey results, discussions were conducted. Starting this year, participation in the conference has been restricted to only physicians and veterinarians. I was allowed to attend the conference at the request of The Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, for news coverage. The topic of my report was "the diagnostic results and treatment of the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake based on traditional medicine."

Report on the ICMART conference in Den Haag / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

I observed the ICMART (International Council of Medical Acupuncture and Related Techniques) World Congress on Medical Acupuncture held on May 13-15, 2011 in Den Haag (Netherlands). The ICMART is an association of western medical societies mainly interested in scientific evidence for acupuncture and other oriental medical techniques. Naturally, the number of presentations dealing with scientific evidence in relation to oriental medicine outnumbered those dealing with clinical aspects or traditional characteristics. The presented results showed, however, that while one set of evidence proves one thing, for example whether acupoints are really points or rather extended areas, another set proves the exact opposite and thus renders either the scientific questionable and the applied methods and/or the obtained results at least questionable. On the other hand, presentations dealing with traditional characteristics or techniques sometimes presented no evidence at all, or did not explain the rational behind the shown results. <BR>Extensive discussion about the integration of alternative medicine into mainstream medicine showed that this subject is much more related to political and financial questions than patient interests, but there seemed also to be some progress and hope for future development.