12th International Congress of Oriental Medicine

It was indeed an extremely well organized Congress; almost a full week filled with a multiplicity of organizational details accompanied by food, flowers and elegance coupled with the warmth of the Taiwanese organizers, although a few of us from northern climes were sweltering in the warm and humid weather. We found it especially warm at the lunches provided as voluminous buffets , served under lovely tents. It was indeed a community affair in which everyone literally dug in with chopsticks to partake of exotic foods. The opening ceremony held the night before had all the trappings of a usual gala—a live rock music band such as La Bamba, folk dancers from the highlands of Taiwan, graceful swan dancers and even the Flamenco, performed by superb Taiwanese artists, that was as authentic as if we were in southern Spain. Other hints of a real gala included multiple lights, large screen video of VIP tables and one that attracted the most attention—the Mayor of Taipei, who welcomed the delegates in the best of spoken English. This was followed by a monstrous buffet. Numerous excursions were designed to highlight Taiwanese culture. Medicines Association. There was a vast representation of people on the Organizing Committee, Executive Committee and Committee Members. There were numerous organizations and support and interest groups as well. Finally, there was widespread representation on the ISOM Organization. The conference included Lectures, Oral Presentations and Posters and Exhibitions in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean (simultaneous translations were provided). The first day of the Congress opened with three superb Plenary Lectures that set the stage for the later scholarly and research oriented presentations. There were more than 100 oral presentations covering (1) oriental medicine analyzed from several viewpoints: education , policy, current trends and molecular biology (first session chaired by E. L. Cooper, Editor-in-Chief, eCAM, and J. F. Liao); (2) acupuncture and moxibustion medicine (second session chaired by N. Yamaguchi, Managing Editor, eCAM; (3) basic research on medicinal herbs; (4) phyto-pharmaceutical industry and research applications and (5) alternative medicines, comparison between western and oriental medicine. There were 82 posters covering the following The three plenary lectures were designed to focus on the activities of the three countries from which most of the delegates had arrived: Taiwan, Japan and Korea. There were a few delegates from other countries, but their participation was negligible. Following are the excerpts as presented in the booklet that was …