Korean team to speak on oriental medicine treatments

The South Korean embassy, in co-operation with the Medical Services Centre of the Qatar Armed Forces, is hosting a delegation from the Korea Pharmacopuncture Institute (KPI). The delegation is headed by Dr Ki Rok Kwon, president of the institute as well as the Good Doctors Philanthropy Association.

The 10 member delegation includes six doctors, of whom two are women, and will be in Qatar until December 18. The main purpose of the visit is to introduce oriental medicine treatments, particularly pharmacopuncture. During the visit, the delegation will hold talks with the Medical Services Department of the Armed Forces.

The delegation is also expected to hold demonstration sessions of the treatment at the embassy for members of the Korean community in Qatar.

Pharmacopuncture is a new form of therapy derived from the conjunction of herbal medicine and the traditional acupuncture therapy. Pharmacopuncturology is a therapy in which herbal medicine is injected into various acupoints of the body to stimulate specific parts of the human body for treatment purposes. It is one of the most advanced traditional Korean therapies and has been newly developed based on studies in traditional oriental medicine areas such as meridians and acupoints, acupuncture and moxibustion, herbology, and herbal formulas.

The Korean Pharmacopuncture Institute was established in 1990 to govern the safety of pharmacopuncture and to modernise its clinical applications. The institute has around 5,600 registered Korean Oriental Medical doctors as members, and is actively involved in doing research in pharmacopuncturology as well as developing new treatment methods.