Acupuncture Anatomy: An Exploration of the Needling Safety in Useful and Dangerous Acupoints with Silent Mentor

After 3 months of preparations, the IMU Chinese Medicine (CM) Department has successfully conducted a Continual Professional Development workshop on acupuncture anatomy in collaboration with Academy for Silent Mentor on 22 June 2022.

This event had successfully attracted 35 external local and international participants to explore the needling safety in useful and dangerous acupoints on Silent Mentors. This event was chaired by our faculty – Freya Tang Sin Wei supported by the whole CM Department and 3 CM senior students.

Prof Zhou Wenxin served as the keynote speaker while Dr Wong Zhi Hang, Freya Tang Sin Wei and Lim Goon Month facilitated the 3 different stations respectively in the workshop. The surgeons: A/Prof Dr Yan Naing Soe and Prof Dr Chin Kin Fah from the Academy for Silent Mentor have also provided their assistance in providing explanation, dissection and suturing process during the event. 2 soft-embalmed and 1 fresh cadaver were used to assist the teaching in commonly use and dangerous acupoints for dissection and needling practice.

All the participants assembled in 8:00am and were separated into 2 groups at Academy for Silent Mentor, Xiao En Centre. After a simple opening speech, reviewing the life history of silent mentors and a 2-minute silence, the participants started to explore the soft-embalmed cadavers in supine and prone positions in rotation and then practiced needling insertion on the fresh cadaver from 9:30am until 5:00pm.

Every participant was extremely focused and cherished the precious moment of studying the acupoints on real human bodies, they immersed themselves into the exploration of needling dangerous acupoints through hands-on experience and discussed about the depth and angle of needling technique on different acupoints with the Silent Mentors. The activities adjourned at 6pm after a sharing session.

The CM staff and students also attended a home visit and funeral of the silent mentors as part of the activities, the facilitators and committee members have also visited Academy for Silent Mentor for rehearsal and pre-study on the cadavers.

With these outstanding achievements, all credits should go to the organising committees led by Freya Tang Sin Wei.