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

ABSTRACT

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.