The Course Opening Ceremony of the Graduate Diploma in Acupuncture at Singapore College of Traditional Chinese Medicine

13 May 2006

By Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts and Health

Venue: Singapore College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 640, Lorong 4, Toa Payoh

Mr Teo Eng Kiat

Principal, Singapore College of TCM

Distinguished guests

Fellow colleagues and friends

Ladies and gentlemen

I am happy to join you this afternoon at the launch of the Graduate Diploma in Acupuncture Course. This is the first time that acupuncture is being taught in a formal and systematic way in English, to Western doctors in Singapore. I congratulate the Singapore College of TCM for making this possible today. You have indeed taken traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to another significant milestone in Singapore.

I understand that this course is so overwhelmingly oversubscribed that you had to run two classes to cater for those on the waiting list. This clearly shows the popularity of TCM and acupuncture in Singapore. It also affirms the Ministry of Health's decision to proceed with the regulation of TCM in the year 2000.

Let me take this opportunity to pose a few challenges to the course participants at the start of your journey in TCM.

Explore TCM with a Critical Mind

The first challenge is to explore TCM and acupuncture with a critical mind. We should all be clear which medical therapies have been proven on a clear scientific basis. We must adhere to the science in medicine. But there are also treatments in Western medicine that have not been proven based on the gold standard double blind trial. In some cases, the decision to prescribe the treatment is based on empirical experience. In other cases, the treatment is experimental. 

TCM is a therapy based on empirical evidence from years of experience. We may not know how it works at a molecular level, but it still serves as a useful complementary therapy. Research is now being done to understand the effects of TCM on the body. A simple search in Medline will reveal hundreds of clinical trials in TCM and acupuncture. For example, I came across a report on the M D Anderson Cancer Center website that the National Cancer Institute has awarded MD Anderson Cancer Centre and the Fudan University in Shanghai $3 million to study TCM in cancer treatment.

Cancer specialist should be aware that TCM can play a role as a complementary treatment, particularly in advanced cancer requiring palliative care. I am indeed heartened to note that so many of you are keen to explore TCM and acupuncture as complementary therapies in your medical practices. I hope that you will study this ancient treatment modality with the same critical mind that you have been trained in when you studied Western medicine. 

Clinical Research in Acupuncture

This leads me to the second challenge - clinical use of acupuncture and TCM. When we started regulating TCM in 2000, acupuncture was only allowed in hospitals on a clinical research basis in Ang Mo Kio Community Hospital, NUH, SGH and TTSH. Last year, MOH reviewed this requirement and allowed acupuncture to be offered as a treatment modality to complement Western medical treatment in hospitals and nursing homes. Since then, other hospitals like CGH, AH and Raffles Hospital have started providing acupuncture services for their patients.

The latest addition is the TCM oncology centre set up by Ren-Ci Hospital to provide complementary palliative TCM services to patients with advanced cancers. The centre which is a collaboration with the Chengdu TCM Board will be located at the Camden Medical Centre. This service will allow patients with cancer to have alternative choices locally so that patients will not have to travel overseas to seek such treatment.

TCM has a complementary role to play in the treatment of certain chronic conditions. Since WHO published a list of conditions that can be treated with acupuncture in 1979, the US National Institute of Health (NIH) has published a consensus statement on acupuncture in 1997 and the UK National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) has also published a review on the efficacy of acupuncture in 2001. These reviews have guided clinicians and researchers to focus on the effectiveness of acupuncture in the areas of pain control and the management and rehabilitation of certain chronic conditions such as stroke and arthritis.

With the rapid ageing of the population in Singapore, these chronic conditions will become more common in time. I hope that in the course of your study, you will identify specific conditions that can benefit from acupuncture.

The third challenge is the upgrading of TCM education. I understand that Singapore College of TCM is one of the oldest TCM schools in Singapore. You have just celebrated your 50th Anniversary in 2003. Indeed, TCM education in Singapore has come a long way, from part-time certificate courses 50 years ago to full-time diploma courses today. I am happy to note that NTU has started a double degree course in TCM last year, jointly with the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.

Conclusion

On that note, it leaves me now to launch the Graduate Diploma in Acupuncture. I wish you every success, as you endeavour to master this ancient science and art of acupuncture to complement your medical practice, and to benefit your patients and the general public in Singapore.

Thank you.