Speakers
Martine Busch (NL)
Martine Busch (NL), originally educated and worked in the field of pedagogy and made a switch as initiator and director of the Van Praag Institute in Utrecht, The Netherlands. As such she was in the lead of many projects concerning ‘connecting and enriching’ standard care with complementary interventions. Policy making, Vision development as well as implementation strategies were part of her agenda. The latest project COCOZ (Communication Complementary Healthcare), focussed on the improvement of communication between complementary and conventional healthworkers.
Dr. Mike Cummings (UK)
Mike is Medical Director of the British Medical Acupuncture Society (BMAS). This is a full time post that involves running the BMAS London Teaching Clinic (LTC), co-ordinating and lecturing on BMAS courses in Western medical acupuncture, acting as an associate editor for the Medline-listed journal Acupuncture in Medicine, and representing the BMAS at various academic and political meetings. Mike is an Honorary Clinical Specialist at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, which is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where he supports acupuncture services.
His principal academic and clinical interest is musculoskeletal pain, and in particular, needling therapies in the treatment of myofascial pain syndromes.
After completing his medical degree at Leeds, and several hospital jobs in the north of England, Mike joined the Royal Air Force for a 6-year short service commission as a medical officer. A substantial portion of the workload for a general duties medical officer (GDMO) in the RAF is musculoskeletal medicine. Mike came across acupuncture by accident whilst working as a GDMO. He followed his interest in musculoskeletal medicine and acupuncture on retiring from military service, and finally found himself occupied full time in the field of acupuncture.
Read Mike’s profile in the Leeds University Medical School Alumni magazine from 2003.
Read a
description of how Mike unexpectedly got into acupuncture in Toby Murcott’s book –
The Whole Story from
2005.
Links, publications,
downloads on this page: https://goo.gl/6XQeXv
Mike edits and writes on the BMAS Blog.
Dr.Clare Foley (I)
Clare Foley (I), acupuncturist and Master in Biophysics.
In order to direct clinical research questions appropriately, it is necessary to first do the ‘bench science’. Our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of acupuncture is being pushed forward by advances in brain imaging, laser needles and electrophysiological recording devices. Rather than asking “does it work?”, this talk will be addressing the question “how does it work?” by looking at what we can objectively measure in the body. Moving beyond standard biochemical measurements to encompass concepts from the field of physics, from the properties of the acupoints to global brain dynamics, the underlying mechanisms of acupuncture are beginning to be revealed.
John Jaarsveld (NL
John Jaarsveld, studied Chemistry and acupuncture. He is following his
masters at the University of York and Head of Research of ETCMA
(European Traditional Chinese Medicine Association). He is a dedicated
interpreter of the classics and a down to earth acupuncturist as he
prefers to rely on logical thinking and training of masters like Kiiko
Matsumoto, with whom he studied for 10 years. In his lecture he will
teach the importance of palpation, touch and contact. Let the hands do
the talking..
Dr. Kai WU (CN)
Kai Wu is an associate professor in Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine and Vice curator of Museum of Chinese medicine in the West.His PhD graduated from the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and as visiting scholar studied in the University of Manchester, UK. His interests is the transmission and cultural diversity of Traditional Chinese medicine in Europe and American.
Jonathan Shubs (CH)
A graduate of Shao Yang Institute, Jonathan has been in private practice in Lausanne (CH) since. To refine his skills and explore further methods, he studied extensively with Daniel Deriaz and
later with Dr. Richard Tan and received the Balance Method Gold level practitioner status in 2014.
He gives both advanced acupuncture courses at Chiway Academy for Acupuncture and Asian Medicine in Winterthur, Switzerland. He also lectures internationally. His main focus centers on integrative acupuncture where he joins different styles and theories to create a coherent and logical approach to diagnosis and treatment.
Dr. Taras Usichenko, MD, PhD (GER/CA)
Dr. Taras Usichenko is a staff anesthesiologist and professor at the Department of Anesthesiology, University Medicine of Greifswald, where he achieved to introduce acupuncture for prevention and treatment of postoperative nausea and vomiting. His research group is currently working to implement evidence-based acupuncture for treatment of preoperative anxiety and postoperative pain. Taras is also holding a professorship at the Department of Anesthesia of McMaster University, in Canada, his research interests cover various topics in anesthesiology, clinical neurophysiology and emergency medicine.
Willem Pinksterboer
Willem Pinksterboer worked as a physical therapist initially but soon decided to enroll in an acupuncture course. After completing that course he studied herbal medicine with Ted Kaptchuk and the Japanese acupuncture style ‘Toyohari’ with Stephen Birch. He has been teaching acupuncture at the ‘TCM-academy’ for over a decade and recently started teaching post grad courses, in which he explores the links between practical, personal, philosophical and social aspects of our profession. Willem regularly publishes articles, blogs and columns on different platforms.