Future doctors and nurses are learning about acupuncture and herbs along with anatomy and physiology at a growing number of medical schools. Itâ??s another example of how alternative medicine has become mainstream. The federal government has spent more than $22 million to help medical and nursing schools start teaching about alternative medicine. Jimmy Wu, a newly graduated doctor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was raised in a family originally from Taiwan, said traditional healing practices are “very much ingrained” in how he thinks about sickness and health. Wu spent a summer in Beijing with a university faculty member observing traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and hopes to include these in a family medicine practice someday. With so many people using alternative care, “it is important that it be treated more than just an afterthought” by medical schools, Wu said.
Office of Strategic Communication