INTRODUCTORY WEEKEND
December 10 - 13, 2009
Tempe, Arizona

CLINICAL UNITS
March 19-23, 2010 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
and
May 26-30, 2010 in Tempe, Arizona

Acupuncture today has become a highly respected and popular modality of medical treatment in the United States. The growing acceptance by physicians and patients is in large part due to the successful work of graduates of the HMI Medical Acupuncture for Physicians program. This course is the most convenient and reliable training program for busy physicians to acquire acupuncture clinical skills.

6,000 physicians have completed the program, which has been taught regularly since 1983 through the Office of Continuing Medical Education, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. It is a comprehensive program, and has earned the reputation of conscientiously accomplishing its goal of creating clinically competent physician acupuncturists who can integrate acupuncture with conventional medicine.

Course Content

• Basic science foundations of acupuncture
• Clinical science levels of evidence
• Fundamentals of traditional acupuncture theory
• Hybrid contemporary model of acupuncture
• Channel and point function, location, and palpation
• Integrated approaches to diagnosis and therapy
• Needling technique
• Patient management
• Practice building and billing

Advantages of This Program

• The HMI Medical Acupuncture for Physicians course is the oldest and most respected physician acupuncture training program in the United States.
• Teaching starts from the biomedical foundations familiar to all physicians and progressively incorporates tenets from classical Chinese texts and the clinical tradition of acupuncture.
• The course content is comprehensive and integrated. It systematically embraces all major approaches to acupuncture and emphasizes the incorporation of medical acupuncture into contemporary professional practice.
• All instructors and clinical preceptors are qualified through the Helms Medical Institute. Their teamwork creates a dynamic and compassionate learning environment unlike any other medical training you have undertaken.
• Each step in learning is anchored to pragmatic applications and realistic clinical situations seen in primary care and pain management practices.
• We enjoy ourselves while teaching and want our students to enjoy themselves while learning.
• The format of the program is convenient for the busy practitioner wanting to assimilate a new discipline: three live sessions with home study; pain management and primary care pathways; reinforced multimedia learning with lecture, reading, video, demonstration, supervised hands-on, and direct patient contact.
• Participation is open only to physicians (MDs and DOs, and DDSs, DPMs, and DMDs in states where acupuncture is included in the scope of practice of their license).
• Medical Acupuncture for Physicians is approved by the American Board of Medical Acupuncture as meeting the standards for board certification. Course graduates are eligible to become practice members of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture, and will have their training accepted by all states requiring acupuncture registration or certification.
• Intermediate and advanced clinical programs are offered regularly by Helms Medical Institute to graduates of this basic program.

Study Expectations

You must be prepared to devote a regular period each week to study the videos and locate points on yourself and family and friends. In the comprehensive 300-hour curriculum, a clinical unit taken at six months requires four to six hours of video viewing and study each week, and at five months, five to seven hours.

Three to six months of serious independent clinical integration following the final unit will ground your experience and allow you to gain confidence and expertise in this new modality.

Course Chairman

Joseph M. Helms, MD, a diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice and the American Board of Pain Management, is a clinical instructor in the Department of Anesthesiology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His training in acupuncture is from l'Association Française d'Acupuncture. He is the founding president of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture, president of the Helms Medical Institute, and the author of the textbook Acupuncture Energetics: A Clinical Approach for Physicians. Dr. Helms has a private medical acupuncture practice in Berkeley, California.

Explanation of Credits

Following successful completion of the three program units, a letter verifying 40 (exposure), or 300 (comprehensive) hours of formal instruction in medical acupuncture (CME hours) will be issued, approximately six weeks after the clinical unit, and subsequent to the return of the home study video material. (CME hours = clock hours.)

Credit for the home video study portions of the course is contingent upon successful completion of post-course tests. No partial credit can be issued for participation in any unit of the program.

Admission Procedure

Acceptance into the program is not automatic upon application. It is based upon professional training and current practice environment, intended use of this specialty, geographic location, and timely receipt of the application and required documents. A recommendation note from a course graduate is encouraged, but not required.

Your application should contain, in addition to the attached form:

• Resume of formal training, including acupuncture background, if any, and a thoughtful statement of plans (at least two paragraphs) for your use of acupuncture.
• Photocopy of your current, active professional license.

The completed application form and documentation should be submitted along with the full tuition fee.

Enrollment is limited. Please apply early in order to receive the preparatory reading and viewing material well in advance of the introductory weekend.

FEE	Before November 1	After November 1
300-HOUR COURSE TUITION FOR UNITS 1, 2, and 3 (Fee includes the Acupuncture Energetics textbook)	$6,850	$7,000
EXTRA CLINICAL INTENSIVE DAY, December 14 (optional)	$650	$750
ADDITIONAL CLINICAL UNIT (For graduates of prior courses, or new students wanting to take both pathways)	$2,500	$2,500
RESIDENTS OR FELLOWS (Must be full-time through conclusion of this course)
300-HOUR	$5,500	$5,650

Online

Online submission is not available for this course. Please print and complete the application from the PDF file by clicking here.

Your application should contain, in addition to the attached form:

• Resume of formal training, including acupuncture background, if any, and a thoughtful statement of plans (at least two paragraphs) for your use of acupuncture.
• Photocopy of your current, active professional license.

The completed application form and documentation should be submitted along with the full tuition fee. Please mail your application to the following address listed under "By Mail."

By Mail

Send all the required completed enrollment form listed above to:
MEDICAL ACUPUNCTURE FOR PHYSICIANS
2520 MILVIA STREET
BERKELEY, CA 94704

By Fax

Fax the enrollment form with charge card information and your authorizing signature to 510-649-8692

Refunds

Helms Medical Institute and the Office of Continuing Medical Education, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, reserve the right to cancel the course or any of its clinical units, and to change the dates or venue of the units. If you are not accepted into the course, a full refund of the tuition is given. If a clinical unit is canceled, you must be available to attend an alternate unit. A full refund is given if the course is canceled, discontinued, or rescheduled. A minimum service charge of $100 is withheld from all other refunds. Requests for refund must be in writing and postmarked one week before the introductory weekend, after which time the fee is not refundable.

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Learning Objectives

This course is designed to meet the needs of physicians seeking responsible and comprehensive training in the emerging discipline of medical acupuncture. In doing so, this CME activity addresses the demands of patients and physicians seeking a safe and time-tested complement or alternative to conventional medical therapies.

If you participate conscientiously in all aspects of the training, this medical acupuncture program should enable you to:

• Apply this skill when addressing everyday musculoskeletal and headache pain problems in your practice, and thereby reduce exclusive reliance on pharmaceuticals;
• Use the acupuncture diagnostic model to interpret premorbid and stress-related problems that typically escape explanation, that is, address the "worried well" issues in your patients;
• Use acupuncture as an early intervention tool in managing chronic pain patients, as primary treatment or in collaboration with medications and other interventions;
• Treat functional and organic problems with acupuncture as either the unique approach or as a complement to conventional therapy;
• Relate on a more intimate, interactive, and practical level with your patients, and thus allow you to enjoy anew your practice of medicine.

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The Office of Continuing Medical Education, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The Office of Continuing Medical Education, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA designates this educational activity for a maximum of 300 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits ^TM. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

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The FDA has issued a concept paper that classifies commercial support of scientific and educational programs as promotional unless it can be affirmed that the program is "truly independent" and free of commercial influence. In addition to independence, the FDA requires that non-promotional, commercially supported education be objective, balanced, and scientifically rigorous. The policy further states that all potential conflicts of interest of the CME staff and faculty be fully disclosed to the program's participants. In addition, ACCME policy now mandates that the provider adequately manages all identified potential cpmflicts of interest prior to the program. We at UCLA fully endorse the letter and spirit of these concepts.

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Accommodations

The Introductory Weekend program is held at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel. A reduced rate of $156 per night has been arranged for you at:

Tempe Mission Palms Hotel
60 East Fifth Street
Tempe, Arizona 85281
Tel: 480-894-1400

Group rate cutoff date: October 18, 2009

A credit card is required to guarantee a room for arrival after 6pm. When reserving, please indicate that you are attending the HMI ACUPUNCTURE COURSE in order to receive the group rate. The hotel is a 15-minute taxi or shuttle ride from Phoenix Airport.

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