Western Medical Acupuncture (WMA)

Overview

Where did western medical acupuncture come from, and how does it actually work beneath the skin?

In this one-hour session, Dr. Mike Cummings walks you through the reasoning that shaped his own path from military medicine into acupuncture practice, then opens up the evidence behind filiform needling as it's used internationally. You'll get a clear-eyed comparison of dry needling and acupuncture: where the techniques diverge, where they overlap, and why that distinction matters for how you frame treatment for patients. Cummings closes with a look at some of the newest mechanistic research on electroacupuncture, connecting lab findings back to what you're doing at the treatment table.

Learning Objectives

In this online course, we will:

1. Describe the historical development and core principles of Western Medical Acupuncture (WMA) and how they differ from traditional Chinese medicine approaches.
2. Differentiate between dry needling and acupuncture techniques, including where they clinically overlap.
3. Explain the mechanistic basis for needling effects at the local, segmental, and supraspinal levels.
4. Identify recent electroacupuncture research findings and their potential clinical applications.
5. Apply an understanding of patient communication and expectation management to needling outcomes.

Audience

This session is built for physiotherapists and physiotherapist assistants already using, or considering, needling techniques in musculoskeletal practice, particularly those with ADN or CPA affiliation. It will also suit any allied health practitioner looking to strengthen the evidence base behind their current dry needling or acupuncture practice.

Why This Course Matters

Needling techniques are widely used in musculoskeletal practice, but the reasoning behind why they work, and how that reasoning should shape technique, isn't always well understood. This session moves past the debate over which needling label is "correct" and focuses instead on mechanism: what's happening in tissue, at the spinal cord, and in the brain when a needle goes in. Understanding these layers gives you a stronger clinical rationale to bring into patient conversations, and a clearer sense of when needling is likely to help. Dr. Cummings also addresses the nocebo effect and the role patient expectation plays in outcomes, a factor that's easy to overlook but can meaningfully shift what you see in the clinic.

About the Presenter

Dr. Mike Cummings, Medical Director, British Medical Acupuncture Society (BMAS), UK

Dr. Mike Cummings qualified in medicine in 1987 and joined the Royal Air Force in 1989 as a General Duties Medical Officer, where he was first introduced to acupuncture. While still serving in the Royal Air Force, he trained in Western medical acupuncture with the British Medical Acupuncture Society (BMAS) and went on to become its first Director of Education in 1997. In 2001, he was appointed full-time Medical Director of the BMAS.

He currently serves as an Honorary Clinical Specialist at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine. Since 2000, Mike has been an editor of Acupuncture in Medicine and is an active peer reviewer for leading journals, including the Annals of Internal Medicine. He has also contributed as a specialist adviser to the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Mike is the author of the BMAS Blog, a widely read research-focused platform on acupuncture and has an extensive academic portfolio, with approximately 111 publications, including around 90 articles in peer-reviewed journals. His work includes 8 systematic reviews, 17 textbook chapters, and authorship of 5 textbooks.

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