Reconceptualizing Professionalism in the Context of Acupuncture: Setting Standards for Future Acupuncturists, a View from Malaysia

Introduction Professionalism and ethical practices in the field of acupuncture is scarcely discussed. Professionalism and medical ethics are important topics in conventional medicine and is the supporting structure gathering human trust and belief in the medical system. Medical professionalism is a set of values, behaviors, and relationships that underpin public trust in doctors.1 It lies at the core of the contract between medical professionals and society,2 and is a stabilizing morally protective force in the society.3 Unprofessional conduct in doctors has been associated with an increased risk of adverse medical outcomes in patients. Thus, to ensure better medical outcomes and well-being of the patient, a uniform system of professional practices must be established within acupuncture. Before this, some research has been done regarding this topic, and our study serves to identify open questions regarding professionalism in acupuncture, including whether biomedical and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) knowledge should be a requirement for professionalism, whether ethics should be considered an aspect of professionalism, differences between interpretations of professionalism, who is responsible for establishing these professional standards, and what we the authors suggest to establish a uniform system of professional values in acupuncture. The objective of this study is to review information related to professionalism in acupuncture and to organize the information in a manner that is presentable and clear to the reader. The review highlights professional standards that needs to be adhered to as well as professional practices in acupuncture, including educational requirements, ethics, professional medical practices, as well as ideal implementation of establishing professionalism. The intended purpose of this article is to support uniform adoption of the recommendations for professional and ethical practices in acupuncture practice. Discussion Limitations: Our study has the following limitations. First, due to the lack of relevant resources about professionalism in acupuncture, we selected relevant sources regarding medical professionalism in conventional medicine as well as surveys in a medical college setting to compare with attributes of professionalism based on requirements set by the Ministry of Health in Malaysia, interviews of TCM practitioners, and two relevant case studies of the professionalization in acupuncture in the United States. The require