One of the fastest-growing medical schools in Baltimore-Washington's state-of-the-art health care corridor teaches neither heart surgery nor cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The only subject at this school is an art 3,000 years old: acupuncture.
One of just two dozen such schools nationwide, Traditional Acupuncture Institute has made downtown Columbia an American hub for Chinese medicine.
"With acupuncture becoming more widely known and recognized for its benefits, we've had an enormous influx of applicants seeking to learn from us," said Robert M. Duggan, co-founder and president of the institute.
Enrollment has nearly doubled to 113 in the past two years, prompting the biggest expansion in the school's history. That rapid growth is part of a national trend, as acupuncture continues to move from being denigrated as a "fringe" medical treatment to assuming a position within mainstream health care.
Although acupuncture most commonly is associated with the insertion of tiny needles into specific points of the body to relieve pain, the institute teaches that proper acupuncture treatment revolves around a broader Chinese philosophy of health based on the natural ebb and flow of life.
"It used to be with acupuncture that the first thing people thought of was needles, like the long needles they were scared of when they were kids," said Dianne M. Connelly, co-founder of the school and head of its board of trustees. "More and more people are understanding that needles are such a small part of the basic philosophy of acupuncture and are more willing to try it."
Despite some mixed reviews in mainstream medical journals, acupuncture's popularity among patients and future practitioners continues to grow both in Maryland and the nation.
In Maryland alone, the number of licensed acupuncturists has increased from seven in 1975 to about 280 today, half of whom are alumni of the Columbia institute, said Mr. Duggan, who is also chairman of the State Board of Physician Quality Assurance's acupuncture advisory council.
A study of health care use in 1990 -- the most recent data available -- found that one in three Americans tried some type of alternative medical treatment that year, ranging from acupuncture to herbal cures to chiropractic. Americans spent $13.7 billion on such treatments in 1990, about 2 percent of the nation's total health care bill.
The medical establishment has begun to recognize the potential value of alternative medicine.
