Study on Establishing a Standard Methodology for Determining the Clinical Effect of Single-point Acupuncture in Patients with Hypertension

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess traditional Korean medicine (TKM) doctors’ awareness and utilization of case reports based on the opinion that careful observation of cases sometimes provides important information on clinical trials, especially in the field of traditional medicine research. Methods: A questionnaire study was conducted among TKM doctors who participated in the annual continuous maintenance education (CME) held in five regions of the Republic of Korea. Results: Almost 60% of the respondents had read case reports published in medical journals, and 67% had openly shared their clinical cases with their colleagues. Of the respondents, 18.6% had been educated on reporting cases, and only 16% had the experience of reporting cases on their own. However, 32.6% of the respondents had intentions to report cases in the future. The results showed significant differences between general physicians who hold a license but have no hospital training on case reports and board-certified TKM doctors who have experienced such training. Conclusions: A majority of TKM doctors have read case reports but have little experience with proper training. This research found that awareness of case reports is rising in hospital training. Thus, the objective of case report education for TKM doctors who undergo hospital training should be to encourage them to write more whereas for doctors who do not experience hospital training, the objective should be to exposing them more to case reports to heighten their awareness.