. 2018 Jun 8;5(2):51.

doi: 10.3390/medicines5020051.

Accreditation Standard Guideline Initiative for Tai Chi and Qigong Instructors and Training Institutions

Byeongsang Oh^{1

2

3}, Albert Yeung⁴, Penelope Klein⁵, Linda Larkey⁶, Carolyn Ee⁷, Chris Zaslawski⁸, Tish Knobf⁹, Peter Payne¹⁰, Elisabet Stener-Victorin¹¹, Richard Lee¹², Whanseok Choi¹³, Mison Chun¹⁴, Massimo Bonucci¹⁵, Hanne-Doris Lang¹⁶, Nick Pavlakis¹⁷, Fran Boyle¹⁸, Stephen Clarke¹⁹, Michael Back²⁰, Peiying Yang²¹, Yulong Wei²², Xinfeng Guo²³, Chi-Hsiu D Weng²⁴, Michael R Irwin²⁵, Aymen A Elfiky²⁶, David Rosenthal²⁷

Affiliations

¹ Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. byeong.oh@sydney.edu.au.
² School of Life Science, University of Technology, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia. byeong.oh@sydney.edu.au.
³ Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Brigham and Women's Hospital; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. byeong.oh@sydney.edu.au.
⁴ Massachusetts General Hospital; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. AYEUNG@mgh.harvard.edu.
⁵ D'Youville College, Buffalo, NY 14201, USA. kleinqpj@gmail.com.
⁶ College of Nursing & Health Innovation, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA. linda.larkey@asu.edu.
⁷ National Institute of Complementary Medicine Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia. C.Ee@westernsydney.edu.au.
⁸ School of Life Science, University of Technology, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia. Chris.Zaslawski@uts.edu.au.
⁹ School of Nursing, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. tish.knobf@yale.edu.
¹⁰ Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA. Peter.Payne@dartmouth.edu.
¹¹ Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, 17165 Stockholm, Sweden. elisabet.stener-victorin@ki.se.
¹² School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA. richard.t.lee@case.edu.
¹³ Department of Family Medicine, The Catholic University College of Medicine, Seoul 06591, Korea. fmchs85@gmail.com.
¹⁴ Department of Radiation Oncology, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon 443749, Korea. chunm@ajou.ac.kr.
¹⁵ San Feliciano Hospital Rome, University of Chieti, 83-00166 Chieti, Italy. maxbonucci@artoi.it.
¹⁶ Hanne-Doris Lang Medical Center, 20099 Hamburg, Germany. mail@hdlang.de.
¹⁷ Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. nick.pavlakis@sydney.edu.au.
¹⁸ Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. franb@bigpond.net.au.
¹⁹ Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. stephen.clarke@sydney.edu.au.
²⁰ Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. michael.back@sydney.edu.au.
²¹ The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA. pyang@mdanderson.org.
²² School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China. weiyulong@bucm.edu.cn.
²³ The Second Medical College of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510006, China. guoxinfeng@gzucm.edu.cn.
²⁴ College of Tai Chi, University of East-West Medicine, Sunnyvale, CA 94085, USA. drcweng@aol.com.
²⁵ Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. mirwin1@ucla.edu.
²⁶ Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Brigham and Women's Hospital; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. aymen.elfiky@sloan.mit.edu.
²⁷ Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Brigham and Women's Hospital; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Drose@huhs.harvard.edu.

PMID: 29890675
PMCID: PMC6023434
DOI: 10.3390/medicines5020051

Accreditation Standard Guideline Initiative for Tai Chi and Qigong Instructors and Training Institutions

Byeongsang Oh et al. Medicines (Basel). 2018.

. 2018 Jun 8;5(2):51.

doi: 10.3390/medicines5020051.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. byeong.oh@sydney.edu.au.
² School of Life Science, University of Technology, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia. byeong.oh@sydney.edu.au.
³ Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Brigham and Women's Hospital; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. byeong.oh@sydney.edu.au.
⁴ Massachusetts General Hospital; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. AYEUNG@mgh.harvard.edu.
⁵ D'Youville College, Buffalo, NY 14201, USA. kleinqpj@gmail.com.
⁶ College of Nursing & Health Innovation, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA. linda.larkey@asu.edu.
⁷ National Institute of Complementary Medicine Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia. C.Ee@westernsydney.edu.au.
⁸ School of Life Science, University of Technology, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia. Chris.Zaslawski@uts.edu.au.
⁹ School of Nursing, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. tish.knobf@yale.edu.
¹⁰ Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA. Peter.Payne@dartmouth.edu.
¹¹ Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, 17165 Stockholm, Sweden. elisabet.stener-victorin@ki.se.
¹² School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA. richard.t.lee@case.edu.
¹³ Department of Family Medicine, The Catholic University College of Medicine, Seoul 06591, Korea. fmchs85@gmail.com.
¹⁴ Department of Radiation Oncology, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon 443749, Korea. chunm@ajou.ac.kr.
¹⁵ San Feliciano Hospital Rome, University of Chieti, 83-00166 Chieti, Italy. maxbonucci@artoi.it.
¹⁶ Hanne-Doris Lang Medical Center, 20099 Hamburg, Germany. mail@hdlang.de.
¹⁷ Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. nick.pavlakis@sydney.edu.au.
¹⁸ Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. franb@bigpond.net.au.
¹⁹ Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. stephen.clarke@sydney.edu.au.
²⁰ Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. michael.back@sydney.edu.au.
²¹ The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA. pyang@mdanderson.org.
²² School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China. weiyulong@bucm.edu.cn.
²³ The Second Medical College of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510006, China. guoxinfeng@gzucm.edu.cn.
²⁴ College of Tai Chi, University of East-West Medicine, Sunnyvale, CA 94085, USA. drcweng@aol.com.
²⁵ Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. mirwin1@ucla.edu.
²⁶ Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Brigham and Women's Hospital; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. aymen.elfiky@sloan.mit.edu.
²⁷ Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Brigham and Women's Hospital; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Drose@huhs.harvard.edu.

PMID: 29890675
PMCID: PMC6023434
DOI: 10.3390/medicines5020051

Abstract

Evidence of the health and wellbeing benefits of Tai Chi and Qigong (TQ) have emerged in the past two decades, but TQ is underutilized in modern health care in Western countries due to lack of promotion and the availability of professionally qualified TQ instructors. To date, there are no government regulations for TQ instructors or for training institutions in China and Western countries, even though TQ is considered to be a part of Traditional Chinese medicine that has the potential to manage many chronic diseases. Based on an integrative health care approach, the accreditation standard guideline initiative for TQ instructors and training institutions was developed in collaboration with health professionals, integrative medicine academics, Tai Chi and Qigong master instructors and consumers including public safety officers from several countries, such as Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Korea, Sweden and USA. In this paper, the rationale for organizing the Medical Tai Chi and Qigong Association (MTQA) is discussed and the accreditation standard guideline for TQ instructors and training institutions developed by the committee members of MTQA is presented. The MTQA acknowledges that the proposed guidelines are broad, so that the diversity of TQ instructors and training institutions can be integrated with recognition that these guidelines can be developed with further refinement. Additionally, these guidelines face challenges in understanding the complexity of TQ associated with different principles, philosophies and schools of thought. Nonetheless, these guidelines represent a necessary first step as primary resource to serve and guide health care professionals and consumers, as well as the TQ community.

Keywords: Qigong; Tai Chi; accreditation; certification; guideline; standards.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

**Figure 1**
Current Tai Chi and/or Qigong instructors without health professional academic degrees.

**Figure 2**
Current Tai Chi and/or Qigong instructors who have work experience at Hospitals without health professional academic degrees.

**Figure 3**
Current Tai chi and/or Qigong instructors with health professional academic degrees.

**Figure 4**
Current Tai Chi and/or Qigong Instructors without supporting documents.

**Figure 5**
Accreditation Guidelines for Tai Chi and Qigong Training Institutions.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Accreditation Standard Guideline Initiative for Tai Chi and Qigong Instructors and Training Institutions

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Accreditation Standard Guideline Initiative for Tai Chi and Qigong Instructors and Training Institutions

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