I have never before participated in such an intense, stimulating, and consistently excellent learning experience. This was the most exciting and best presented course I have ever had, including everything since beginning medical school thirty-two years ago. It is a model worthy of being included in every medical school.
C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D. Founding President, American Holistic Medical Association
No other training program in complementary medicine combines scientific practical knowledge with the rigor of this course. I returned to my practice with the intellectual models and manual skills to integrate acupuncture.
Jeff Nichols, M.D., Behavioral Medicine, Topeka, Kansas
This is an excellent program. Dr. Helms integrates conventional western medicine with the eastern constructs on a very accessible level. The approaches taught are very useful for patients who present with the vague disease states that our conventional modalities do not touch. I now use acupuncture to treat an array of simple and complex patient problems.
Theresa Hom, D.O., Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, Columbus, Ohio
The acupuncture perspective on symptoms helps me put aside the blinders of conventional medicine. I can listen to patients and believe them rather than dismissing them because what they are saying doesn't make sense from a conventional perspective.
James W. Haefemeyer, M.D., Family Medicine, Minneapolis, Minnesota
It is remarkable how much one can learn in an intensive course. It was a melting pot of different specialties, and I learned much from the other doctors. I arrived at the clinical unit with a major question mark over my head and left with an exclamation! The course made me rethink my approach toward medicine; I've rediscovered my hands.
David Lee, M.D., Neurology, Lamberton, New Jersey
The course has provided a solid foundation that enables me to evaluate patients and formulate treatment plans in a very coherent manner. I have been incorporating acupuncture into my primary care practice, and my experience had been rewarding since the results have been mostly successes.
Ivan Iriarte, M.D., Professor of Family Medicine, Ponce School of Medicine, Puerto Rico
Anyone, whatever their level of previous training in acupuncture, or for that matter in any field of medicine, will greatly benefit from the HMI course. I learned a great deal of new material that beautifully complements my 15+ years of training and practice in acupuncture.
Richard G. Petty, M.D., Neuropsychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
I recently mentioned to another course participant my calculations for the total true cost of taking the acupuncture course. His response was: “That is a small price for preventing professional burn-out.” Very true! Adding acupuncture to my practice has been the most refreshing and invigorating thing I have done in years.
Alan Spanos, M.D., M.A. Pain Management, Raleigh, North Carolina
The course was intense and demanding, and required the most time and focused attention of any course I've encountered since medical school. And, given the wealth of acupuncture material presented, the time was well spent. Dr. Helms has assembled a cadre of preceptors who enhanced the clinical experience with wisdom from their own practices.
Kathleen Moore Bishop, M.D., Anesthesia, Tucson, Arizona
This course gave me direction in my acupuncture journey. The first weekend presented an overview of acupuncture. The videotapes distilled the concepts and principles in a form that was easy to understand. The clinical experience stimulated a vibrant chord that continues to play its music. In the month after the course, I reviewed some tapes for a more precise understanding of the subject. I have no doubt that acupuncture has a revivifying effect on the patient as well as on the physician.
Abegael N. Lorico, M.D., Woman's Health, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
I've read these brochures for years, but nothing in the quoted endorsements prepared me for how good the course is.
Paul B. Juergens, M.D., Pain Management Marian, Illinois
My analogy of this course is that it sends you out like you were trained for the Marines, where other courses send you out to the National Guard.
Frank Russo, M.D., Anesthesiology, Cape Coral, Florida
This experience has been one of the highlights of my professional career. It provided me with the opportunity to expand my scope as a physician, in ways I never could have imagined.
Debra L. Braverman, M.D., Physical Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Health System, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
In addition to getting the material across, the professors exhibit a sensitive concern for our confusion, and a willingness to repeat and reinforce material evenly, gently, and with an unusual sense of patience. This brings back an element of joy to the learning process, and rekindles the original love for the practice of medicine.
Mike Acord, M.D., Kaiser Permanente, Harbor City, California
Having spent more than ten years organizing educational sessions myself as a residency program director, I know how difficult it is to assemble, train, and monitor faculty for an undertaking this comprehensive. To an individual, the preceptors on the HMI team are enthusiastic, approachable, and well grounded in the fundamentals of the material they are presenting. They are all excellent communicators and, more importantly, good listeners. A course as demanding as this one would not be successful without this level of quality in its instructors.
Lt. Col. C. R. Pattan, M.D., (U.S. Army) Dupont, Washington
This was the most exciting learning opportunity I have encountered in my life. I am loving my acupuncture practice, and continue to be amazed by the wonderful results in most of my patients. I have started getting referrals from other subspecialists, including a once very skeptical neurologist.
Tapan K. Chaudhuri, M.D., Internal Medicine, Kansas City, Missouri
In retrospect, the tuition for the course is a bargain considering all the information we are given and the actual time spent in supervised activities.
Joel Stephenson, M.D., Lexington, Kentucky
I am grateful for my acupuncture training every time I interview a new complex patient, as I say:
Now that we’ve taken the detached I’m-not-really-interested-in-your-history medical check-list, if I had a magic wand and all you had to do was carefully and honestly list the problems you wanted sorted: What would they be? Even if you were told by other doctors that a problem was silly or insignificant, tell me all the same, and we’ll see if we can’t together, work out something.This is being a real physician."
Patrick Magovern, M.B.B.S., Dublin, Ireland