Stakeholders urge higher training, unified degree titles and clearer clinical standards

Members of the public, educators and professional groups spoke at length on Nov. 5, 2025 about proposals to modernize acupuncture education in California, saying higher and clearer standards are needed so acupuncturists can work in hospitals and integrative settings.

Chair Francisco Kim opened the broader discussion by saying the committee would revisit degree naming, prerequisites, science requirements and clinical hours and asked for more participation from experienced practitioners to update curriculum. Staff reminded attendees that "the board does not set the degree requirements. The board says the curriculum requirements," and that any mandatory change to degree-level entry would require legislative action.

Several deans, school representatives and coalition members urged a move to a first professional doctorate as a route to greater public confidence and integration with conventional health systems. Lillian Li, academic dean at Alhambra Medical University, argued that "Eastern and Western medicine are moving toward a deeper integration," pointing to San Francisco Department of Public Health, City of Hope and UC Irvine Medical Center as examples of institutions employing acupuncturists in integrated care teams.

Ryan McCarthy of the California Acupuncture Coalition recommended specific numeric changes: raising the entry-level doctorate to a minimum of 3,400 hours (current master's programs were described as roughly 3,095–3,200 hours) and requiring stronger science prerequisites (McCarthy suggested support for 90 prerequisite credits for doctoral admission and a minimum of about 350 hours of basic sciences in the curriculum).

Public commenters and educators pressed for clearer, standardized clinical competencies rather than relying solely on hour counts. Farshid Namin and others reported variability in clinical training across schools and warned against permitting excessive online or unsupervised clinical hours for doctoral programs. Neil Miller and other speakers suggested reviewing prior curriculum-competency work (panels in the 1990s produced a compromise around roughly 3,800 hours) and urged competency-based standards tied to clear learning outcomes.

Participants also debated degree titles and accreditation alignment. Gina Huang of 5 Branches University said ACOM/APOM adopted a unified degree title in 2024 for ACOM-approved schools, but non-ACOM-accredited or nationally accredited schools may still use different titles, which complicates verification and public recognition. Several speakers asked the board to coordinate with ACOM and other accrediting entities to converge on a single professional title.

On clinical hours and experiential learning, schools described barriers to placing students in hospital, VA and community sites because many such sites are not owned by the school. Janelle Huang (5 Branches University) said those off-site placements can still be performed "under our school's oversight" with faculty supervision, and asked the board to clarify rules that prevent counting externship time supervised externally. Staff suggested the committee consider removing an older requirement that 50% of clinical hours occur in a school-owned-and-operated clinic, pointing out that ACOM's approach focuses on supervision and educational conditions rather than ownership.

Board staff clarified enforcement limits: the board lacks routine authority to conduct site visits of schools or clinics absent a complaint and that statutory authority for broader inspection was removed around 2016; expanding that power would require a statutory change. Speakers suggested stakeholder roundtables, legislative outreach and use of past curriculum work to produce a modernization bill for the legislature.

The committee took no final regulatory action at this meeting; it heard testimony and asked staff to consider follow-up steps, including coordination with accrediting agencies and potential outreach to legislators.