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Oral Presentations / European Journal of Integrative Medicine 4S (2012) 9123

ent study subjects. Five (5.6%) colleges conducted continuing

medical education activities related to CAM. Among faculty
members, there are only 16 CAM specialists working in seven
colleges and 84 interested staff members, working in 20 colleges.
Colleges of pharmacy are more interested in CAM education
compared to other colleges. Six out of 14 (42.9%) of them
have CAM courses in their curricula (p = 0.006). In addition,
they have more faculty CAM specialists (p = 0.026) compared
to other colleges.
Conclusion: There is a low and diverse attention given to
CAM in medical education in Saudi Arabia. There is a need for
a national plan to review health colleges curricula to prepare
health-care providers for the integration of evidence-based CAM
practices.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.668
OP-174
Inter-examiner reliability in low back column: pre- and posttraining of a specic protocol of palpation tests
Arienti Chiara, Uberti Stefano, Dacc Silvia
Istituto Superiore di Osteopatia, Milan, Italy
Background: Evidence-based medicine requires that
osteopaths use, in their clinical practice, only touching tests of
proved reliability. Inter-operator reliability is considered by the
scientific community to be the most relevant aspect to judge the
validity of a manual test. In osteopathic clinical practice, palpation tests are widely used in the research of somatic dysfunction.
Aim: The objective of this study was to verify if interexaminer reliability in the research of somatic dysfunction, in
subjects not affected by low back pain in the L1L4 region, is
higher using a wider number of palpation tests against the use
of single positional palpation tests.
Methods: A total of 45 healthy subjects of both sexes were
enrolled, at the Istituto Superiore di Osteopatia (ISO) of Milan.
Three examiners, students of the 5th year of ISO, researched
somatic dysfunctions in the low back region between L1 and L4
using only positional palpation tests (phase 1), unaware of the
results obtained by the other examiners. Subsequently, the three
operators have been trained to use a wider number of palpation
tests (phase 2). The examiners have then used such number of
palpation tests to search for somatic dysfunctions in the low back
region from L1 to L4 in the same group of enrolled subjects and
with the same methods. The data analysis has been carried out
through an interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to evaluate
the inter-examiner agreement.
Results: In the first evaluating method (phase 1), the interexaminer reliability showed a value defined as average, with an
ICC of 0.44. On the contrary, in the second evaluating method
(phase 2), the inter-examiner agreement showed a value defined
as excellent, with an ICC of 0.79.
Conclusions: The data obtained with the first evaluating
method (phase 1) confirmed what has already been scientifically
demonstrated by the literature: palpation tests alone cannot be
considered as reliable. With respect to the literature, our data

have a value indicated as average and not poor, as the selected

operators all belonged to the same course of study. On the
other hand, the data of the second evaluating method (phase 2)
obtained a value identified as excellent and this indicates that the
three operators got a high level of agreement. These data were
obtained thanks to a training period before the second evaluating method and the use of a digital algometer during phase 2 for
pain stimulation. The literature confirms these data.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.669
OP-175
The AYUGRID projectDigital Ayurveda
Kessler Christian 1 , Hellwig Oliver 2 , Oberlies Thomas 3 , Wischnewsky Manfred 2 , Michalsen Andreas 4
1 Immanuel

Hospital, Berlin
of Bremen, Bremen
3 University of Gttingen, Gttingen
4 Immanuel Hospital, Charit, Berlin, Germany
2 University

Aims: The traditional Indian medicine Ayurveda is a mainstream system of medicine in South Asia and one of the fastest
growing holistic medical systems worldwide. It offers one of the
worlds largest written traditional medical records, composed in
Sanskrit language. To date, Asian and Western practitioners of
Ayurveda directly refer their practice to classical Ayurvedic Sanskrit texts. However, to this day no synoptic approach has been
undertaken to intelligently extract medical information from
Ayurvedic Sanskrit texts in order to generate systematic digital
Ayurvedic treatment guidelines. The goal of the interdisciplinary
AYUGRID project is the creation of a digital treatment-guideline
database for Ayurveda and the setting up of a virtual Ayurveda
grid community working environment.
Methods: The modular AYUGRID project will use stateof-the-art e-Science/e-Research-, e-Service-, e-Infrastructure-,
e-Learning- and e-Community-tools involving Indologists,
computer linguists, IT experts, Ayurveda specialists and medical doctors in an interdisciplinary approach. Work packages
will be (1) the (semi-)automatic digital extraction of medical knowledge from the three Ayurveda main texts with a
focus on three test-domain indications of high clinical relevance (viz., cardiovascular diseases, chronic pain syndromes
and diabetes mellitus), (2) the systematic generation of historic
treatment guidelines (AYUGRID-SUTRA) based on the digital extraction results and (3) the diachronic integration of the
historic treatment guideline results into modern evidence-based
S1-Ayurveda-treatment guidelines for the chosen indications
(AYUGRID-GUIDE). Project duration: 20122015.
Conclusion: The AYUGRID project will be the initial point
for the development of Digital Ayurveda starting with the
establishment of a proof-of-concept Ayurvedic guideline data
bank. The community grid environment AYUGRID will (1)
facilitate workflows in e-Science and e-Research on Ayurveda,
(2) help to enhance e-Services and e-Infrastructure in this field,
(3) provide a virtual e-Learning ambience and (4) will be conducive for networking, collaboration and cooperation in research

Oral Presentations / European Journal of Integrative Medicine 4S (2012) 9123

85

on Ayurveda. Moreover, AYUGRID will serve as generic pilot

project for grid community-based guideline development for
other holistic medical systems

OP-177

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.670

Quirico Piero Ettore

OP-176

F.I.S.A, Turin, Italy

Objective reality: quantum physics and medical science with

regard to the issue of objectivity

The spread of acupuncture in Italy began in the second half

of the 20th century, more from France, less so from England. In
the 60s, the first Acupuncture Scientific Societies were founded
in Turin and in Milan and in these cities were held the first
educational courses for medical doctors. The real training in
acupuncture, however, began only in the second half of the 70s,
with the establishment, for the first time, of 3-year courses. In
those days the schools of acupuncture proposed two different
ways of teaching, one with more traditional features and the
other more scientific. In subsequent years, many acupuncture
schools were started all over Italy, founded by associations or, as
well, by private institutes. In 1987, the constitution of the F.I.S.A.
(Italian Federation of Acupuncture Societies) gathered not only
scientific societies, but also most of the Schools of Acupuncture,
leading to the creation of a unique educational programme, lasting 4 years. The acupuncture schools that currently are members
of the F.I.S.A. are 15, with 600 students enrolled in the 4-year
course; moreover, from 1996 to nowadays, 2920 medical doctors
graduated obtaining the F.I.S.A. Italian Certificate of Acupuncture. The training offered by F.I.S.A. schools has the following
characteristics: a 4-year course of 1200 h in total, specifically,
residential training (480 h, 80% theoretical and 20% practical),
practical training in clinic with a tutor (40 h), self-study (520 h)
and graduation thesis (160 h), an unified programme in which
both aspects of acupuncture, traditional and modern, are developed, the fourth year characterised by clinical courses, open to
all the students of F.I.S.A. schools, annual examinations and the
defence of a doctoral thesis at the end of the course in front
of a Commission including an external member representing
the F.I.S.A. All the physicians who have achieved the Italian
Certificate of Acupuncture are introduced in the F.I.S.A. Registry, which is published annually. The main contents of the
FISA teaching programme of acupuncture are the following:
acupuncture and Chinese medicine: fundamentals, semeiotics
and physiopathology; acupuncture points and channels; clinical acupuncture, anatomy and neurophysiology of acupuncture;
acupuncture and evidence-based medicine (EBM), complementary methods, reflextherapic semeiotics and techniques, practical
exercises in the classroom and practical training in clinic.

Stella Aldo, Cantalupi Tiziano, Fantinelli Manuela

Istituto Pinus, Ravenna, Italy
This research approaches the issue of the relation between
objective reality, which is the reality previous to any measurement, and the reality which has been already measured. This
research is inspired by the thesis outlined by quantum physics:
objective reality is considered to be an overlapping of layers,
thus being wave-like and corpuscular at the same time. This is an
antinomic status, since a wave takes up a specific volume, while
a particle is localised in space. Nevertheless, the indicated status must be postulated, because objective reality is indeterminate
and, potentially, can take a particular form and its opposite at the
same time. Only its measurement, and the method of measurement chosen by the tester, will determine which form the matter
will take, whether the wave-like or the corpuscular. Since the
measurement gives shape to the matter, two issues arise: on the
one hand, the issue of the relation between measured reality and
objective reality and, on the other hand, the role of the tester in
determining reality, which depends on the measurement method,
and in acknowledging that it is impossible to identify objective
reality with measured reality. This problem concerns medical
science as well. As a matter of fact, it is nave to think that an
objective reality exists and that it can be determined as objective:
in fact, if it is objective, it cannot be determined, because determining means transforming it through a subjective intervention.
Thus, using the biological model to describe human body does
not lead to the comprehension of its objective reality, but to the
detection of particular signs and functions which are linked to
a particular point of view. This is really important, because it
prevents us from considering the bio-medical perspective as the
only one possible, because of our lack of understanding reality. In conclusion, this essay shows how only the consciousness
of an individual can give the right solution to the problem of
understanding objective reality. Only because of a critical consciousness can individuals understand that every measurement
derives from a point of view. For this reason, every theory concerning human body and mind is provisional and relative, thus
necessarily open to different points of view and new perspectives. Understanding objective reality is a utopia rather than a
knowledge which can be actually attained.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.671

Education in acupuncture in Italy: the role of Italian Federation of Acupuncture SocietiesF.I.S.A.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2012.07.672
OP-178
Clinical methodological bilingualism of doctors
Ravaglia Mario, Fantinelli Manuela
Istituto Pinus, Ravenna, Italy
The systemic examination of the patient, the so-called integrated medicine, is made through a multiplanar reconstruction