Case Study Guidelines

Case studies are an important resource for acupuncture clinicians and researchers alike.

Acupuncturists learn from both tracking their own case studies and from understanding new approaches by reading interesting high – quality case studies. With the advent of Electronic Health Records, we now have the opportunity to track our own cases in a very clear manner, and to implement greater detail as necessary in a methodical fashion.

Researchers may gather qualitative evidence and ideas from case studies and pursue hypotheses that may be stimulated by treatment outcomes or treatment techniques of these case studies.

Basically, we need to publish more case studies and case series!

That said, it is important to gather as much detailed information as possible without overwhelming the reader. Here are some case study guidelines that I have gleaned from my education at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine as well as various sources mentioned below.