99th MDG providers receive acupuncture training

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Mikaley Kline
  • 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. --  Providers assigned to the 99th Medical Group recently underwent training here to become certified acupuncturists.

The 99th MDG is partnering with the Acus Foundation to provide acupuncture training to approximately 120 medical providers over the next several years.

Acupuncture is a treatment that is highly individualized and can include insertion of various types of needles into the body, scalp, or the ears. Most acupuncture needles are transient, meaning they are left in for about 20 to 30 minutes and then removed. Needles in the ear can stay in for about a week.

"Currently, the 99th MDG has very few acupuncturists and the training is expensive, so we have partnered with the Acus  foundation to provide training to 120 medical providers here," said Lt. Col. (Dr.) Paul Crawford, 99th Medical Operations Squadron Clinical Investigation Program and Family Medicine Residency program director. "The overall goal of this program is that we switch from a mindset that acupuncture is often thought of as a last ditch effort for treating stress, pain, or other medical conditions, to a mindset of 'think acupuncture first' which is our motto for this program."
As with all training for the 99th MDG, the goal is to improve patient care.

"By training most of the providers at the 99th MDG, we will make acupuncture accessible to everybody. This will hopefully result in better, safer and more patient-centered care," he said. "Our relationship with Acus started about a year ago when we contracted with them to provide additional training. Now through philanthropic donations, they're providing training to us."

Chronic pain, stress, insomnia and other medical conditions have a huge impact on quality of life.

"Acupuncture can transform those lives," said Crawford. "Experiences at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence for Traumatic Brain Injuries and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders and while deployed have shown that acupuncture can help with wounded warriors and people affected by deployments dramatically."

Acupuncture can be very useful, either as the exclusive treatment or to complement conventional treatment, especially for pain and stress-related problems.

Airman 1st Class Tawni Deboma, 99th Medical Operations Squadron medical technician, volunteered to be a part of the acupuncture training to help relieve some pain she was having in her neck.

"I started with a five-out-of-10 pain and it decreased to a one-out-of-10 after all the needles were taken out," she said. "I had a dull and aching pain and now the pain isn't there. I've never had acupuncture before so having the needles put in was a different feeling."

Crawford arranged for Dr. Joseph Helms -- president of the Helms Medical Institute, a leading organization in the acupuncture field -- and his team to come to Nellis Air Force Base earlier this year in January. They trained 20 residents in first aid acupuncture, which is the first in a five-step program.

"We did the first first-aid program in March and the second one happened this past weekend," said Helms. "Now we have all the family practice residents trained in first aid acupuncture as well as representatives from the [Family Health] clinic across the hall. What we're doing here is a special program where we come here rather than having the providers come to where we are."

Crawford participated in the comprehensive acupuncture training program five years ago and has been providing acupuncture to his patients at Nellis.

"The training has been well received, both by the patients and the family medicine residency that he's supervising. He sent a number of the residents to the comprehensive program so that more of his staff could be providing these services," said Helms. "He invited the Acus Foundation to come out and provide additional training for the family practice residents initially."

As more providers were trained, the enthusiasm and demand for acupuncture grew among residents and patients.

By training many providers in the clinics at Nellis, Helms said there should be a favorable impact on the symptoms, the general well-being and the use of medications in the Nellis and Creech Air Force Base populations.