Winston Lee L. Ac., Ph.D., KMD
Introducing Jaseng’s the basic protocol for integrating eastern and western medicine.
I am working for Jaseng Center in California and its head quarter is located in Seoul, Korea. Jaseng Medical Group is the largest Asian medicine hospital in Korea and it has as many as 21 branches all over the country.
Jaseng hospital has grown its branch for the last 10 years. The hospital specializes in managing neck and back pain, especially serious cases which demand surgery. As part of the leading Asian medicine hospital in Korea, I would like to introduce the basic protocol for patients implemented at my hospital which incorporates eastern and western techniques.
Suppose a female patient visits a Jaseng Center with moderate pain at the lower back area. On her first visit, a resident sees her and does initial intake.
Then she would be recommended to take an X-ray and MRI test on same day. She is guided to see a primary doctor – in Korean Medicine – with MRI and X-ray reports review. The same resident checks her past medical history, symptom and explains the MRI and X-ray readings to her thoroughly.
As you see, all these procedures so far are similar to what is happening in a western or conventional hospital. There is no eastern theory intervention till now. The doctor demonstrates and explains the treatment plan. Thanks to the in-house research center, we have thousands of case studies and evidence based statistics about her treatment plan.
The doctor explains the amount of time it will take to see a difference and the total number of treatment that will be required or recommended.
The doctor is even able to predict her pain level changes week by weak using thousands of previous treatment data base for the same condition the patient has. After the consultation, some treatment plans include Chuna manipulation, MSAT (Motion Styled Acupuncture Treatment) and Cheongpajeon.
Chuna manipulation is similar to chiropractic techniques in US and treats imbalance of spinal structure. Next, the doctor conducts MSAT in order to reduce acute pain and other complications. MSAT is a very effective acupuncture treatment, especially to acute pain.
A related thesis has been published as the main cover paper in the Journal of PAIN which is official journal of the American Pain Society (Effects of motion style acupuncture treatment in acute low back pain patients with severe disability: A multicenter, randomized, controlled, comparative effectiveness trial [2013])
For clarification, we use only MSAT for spinal disorder and always prescribe pre-made herbal medicine to reduce inflammation in muscles, ligaments and nerves. This medicine also has an effect to boost up recovery rate from nerve damage resulted from disc herniation or spinal stenosis.
After acupuncture treatment, she attends physical therapy under primary doctor’s instruction. Along with these eastern and western treatments, she receives Cheongpajeon(Jaseong’s herbal prescription) which controls the pain and treats the root cause.
Jaseng Research Center (JSR) has reported that the key ingredient in Cheongpajeon is a GCSB-5 compound. GCSB can reduce the development of acute and chronic inflammation. (Modulation of acute and chronic inflammatory processes by a traditional medicine preparation GCSB-5 both in vitro and in vivo animal models. 『Journal of Ethnopharmacology』2010)
She is supposed to visit the doctor on weekly basis to take acupuncture and Chuna manipulation for several months. And duration for future treatment is decided by severity patients’ symptom or MRI exam results.
In summary, our standardized procedure begins with diagnosis of a patient’s condition with objective western method performing X-ray, MRI tests or blood test if required. Then, we treat the patient with standardized eastern method such as MSAT, Chuna manipulation and Cheongpajeon. Our goal is for patients to fully understand their diagnosis without confusion.
Our doctors perform reliable eastern treatment backed with strong evidence. Because of this, Jaseng has succeeded in numerous case studies and published plenty of scientific theses on notable medical journals in the world.
As a medical doctor in Korean Medicine and part of the medical staff in Jaseng, I would like to recommend my peer doctors to study radiology and learn western medicine more deeply and broadly. With these efforts, doctors can assure patients about the benefits of acupuncture and other herbal medicine. Not to mention a doctor can rule out other complications such as malignant tumor or spondylitis with this routine procedure.
