The European Institute of Oriental Medicine (EIOM) was established in 2001 as a centre of excellence in education and research in traditional East Asian or Oriental Medicine.
The aim of the Institute
is to provide education at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels that match the highest international standards and to contribute to international research within the field. EIOM is a cooperative partner of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Klassische Akupunktur und Traditionelle Chinesische Medizin e. V., one of Europe's leading professional organizations joining medical and non-medical practitioners of Oriental medicine.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, an ever increasing number of patients world-wide is turning to traditional East Asian medicine. The principles that underpin this medicine remain as relevant today as at the moment of their conception. The contexts in which they are applied are constantly changing, however, demanding of traditional medicine to adapt and change, to move forward without losing its foundation in the past. This is the challenge facing any practitioner or Oriental medicine today.
The Institut
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"Anyone desiring to study medicine without first studying the classics of acupuncture - the Essential Questions and the Spiritual Pivot - will never gain a clear understanding of the channels and collaterals. Therefore, they will never understand how disorders evolve. If they do not also study the classics of herbal medicine - the Discussions on Cold Damage and the Essential Prescriptions from the Golden Cabinet- they will not know how to compose a prescription and to treat appropriately. Those who do not read the four great masters of the Jin-Yuan dynasties, finally, will never understand how to employ the methods of supplementing, draining, warming or cooling and how to vary the different treatment principles in an appropriate manner."
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| Fei Bo-Xiong (1800 - 1879, the most famous physician of the late Qing-dynastye) |
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Oriental medicine in the 21st Century: Meeting the challenge
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, an ever increasing number of patients world-wide is turning to traditional East Asian medicine. The principles that underpin this medicine remain as relevant today as at the moment of their conception. The contexts in which they are applied are constantly changing, however, demanding of traditional medicine to adapt and change, to move forward without losing its foundation in the past. This is the challenge facing any practitioner or Oriental medicine today.
The transmission of original writings
The theoretical foundations of Oriental medicine are contained in the medical classics, to which physicians have added an ever expanding archive of commentaries. We believe that proficiency in the practice of Oriental medicine demands direct access to these writings. For this reason, teaching at EIOM proceeds directly from these medical classics and their modern commentaries and not from standardized versions of medical knowledge contained in modern textbooks.
A plurality of treatment approaches
Oriental Medicine is not a single medical system. It is a complex body of ideas and practices that has gradually evolved over two thousand years. It is a tradition of many different currents of thought that constantly infuse each other with new knowledge, and that promote growth through the dynamics of debate and controversy. We believe in the enabling and enriching quality of this traditional diversity and resist attempts at reducing it to a single system. The Institute therefore aims to contribute to the dissemination of Oriental medicine's traditional plurality. Our educational program seeks to enable students to merge the different streams of tradition into syntheses that reflect their personal and professional aspirations as well as the needs of their patients. Our postgraduate courses aim to help practitioners develop their own style based on a firm foundation in classical medical knowledge.
Clinical practice
Oriental medicine is a healing art. Proficiency in this art requires applying theoretical principles within concrete clinical contexts. For this reason, our students begin clinical practice within the first year of their undergraduate training. Under the supervision of experienced practitioners with a minimum of ten years clinical experience, students are guided to understand disease as process and event. They learn how to formulate diagnoses that comprehend this pathological process, to correct it with the help of appropriate treatment strategies, and to translate these strategies into effective treatment.
Faculty
All teachers and clinical instructors at EIOM are required to have at least ten years of clinical experience in the field of Oriental medicine. Our core faculty is composed of practitioners that read and speak at least one East Asian language and thus have direct and unmediated access to the Oriental medical literature. Most have spend considerable time in East Asia and are known internationally for their contributions to research and teaching in the field. This allows us to base all of our training programs on classical and modern source texts and on the rich clinical experience of our faculty.
Outlook
Students undertaking undergraduate training at EIOM will learn to become independent and competent practitioners who are able to practice Oriental medicine in a safe and clinically effective manner. Postgraduate programs and courses are aimed at assisting practitioners to deepen their knowledge of the Oriental medical tradition and to further their personal and professional development. In all of our programs wee attach great importance to critical self-reflection and research mindedness. We believe that the ongoing development of the Oriental medical tradition - whether on the level of personal practice or the profession as a whole - is enabled by debate, diversity, and scholarly research.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, an ever increasing number of patients world-wide is turning to traditional East Asian medicine. The principles that underpin this medicine remain as relevant today as at the moment of their conception. The contexts in which they are applied are constantly changing, however, demanding of traditional medicine to adapt and change, to move forward without losing its foundation in the past. This is the challenge facing any practitioner or Oriental medicine today.
The transmission of original writings
The theoretical foundations of Oriental medicine are contained in the medical classics, to which physicians have added an ever expanding archive of commentaries. We believe that proficiency in the practice of Oriental medicine demands direct access to these writings. For this reason, teaching at EIOM proceeds directly from these medical classics and their modern commentaries and not from standardized versions of medical knowledge contained in modern textbooks.
A plurality of treatment approaches
Oriental Medicine is not a single medical system. It is a complex body of ideas and practices that has gradually evolved over two thousand years. It is a tradition of many different currents of thought that constantly infuse each other with new knowledge, and that promote growth through the dynamics of debate and controversy. We believe in the enabling and enriching quality of this traditional diversity and resist attempts at reducing it to a single system. The Institute therefore aims to contribute to the dissemination of Oriental medicine's traditional plurality. Our educational program seeks to enable students to merge the different streams of tradition into syntheses that reflect their personal and professional aspirations as well as the needs of their patients. Our postgraduate courses aim to help practitioners develop their own style based on a firm foundation in classical medical knowledge.
Clinical practice
Oriental medicine is a healing art. Proficiency in this art requires applying theoretical principles within concrete clinical contexts. For this reason, our students begin clinical practice within the first year of their undergraduate training. Under the supervision of experienced practitioners with a minimum of ten years clinical experience, students are guided to understand disease as process and event. They learn how to formulate diagnoses that comprehend this pathological process, to correct it with the help of appropriate treatment strategies, and to translate these strategies into effective treatment.
Faculty
All teachers and clinical instructors at EIOM are required to have at least ten years of clinical experience in the field of Oriental medicine. Our core faculty is composed of practitioners that read and speak at least one East Asian language and thus have direct and unmediated access to the Oriental medical literature. Most have spend considerable time in East Asia and are known internationally for their contributions to research and teaching in the field. This allows us to base all of our training programs on classical and modern source texts and on the rich clinical experience of our faculty.
Outlook
Students undertaking undergraduate training at EIOM will learn to become independent and competent practitioners who are able to practice Oriental medicine in a safe and clinically effective manner. Postgraduate programs and courses are aimed at assisting practitioners to deepen their knowledge of the Oriental medical tradition and to further their personal and professional development. In all of our programs wee attach great importance to critical self-reflection and research mindedness. We believe that the ongoing development of the Oriental medical tradition - whether on the level of personal practice or the profession as a whole - is enabled by debate, diversity, and scholarly research.
