Dear Board of Physical Therapy, 

I am a licensed acupuncturist in California and am writing to object to the intent to draft "dry needling" regulations. I believe the regulations present a serious threat to public health, encroaching on the licnesed acupuncturists' scope of practice, and would authorize physical therapists to engage in acts that are clearly outside the scope of practice for physical therapy that has been adopted by the Virginia General Assembly.  

I encourage you not to draft regulations because: 

1. 54 hours of training is a completely inadequate level of training to qualify a physical therapist to safely insert acupuncture needles into patients and the regulations therefore are a serious threat to public safety. If you research, for example, pneumothorax caused by acupuncture, you will virtually ALWAYS see that it occurs when a practitioner is allowed to needle after less than 300 or 100 hours;

2. Dry needling constitutes the practice of acupuncture under Virginia law and there is no basis for allowing physical therapists to practice acupuncture with only a small percentage of the training required for acupuncturists and even medical doctors. I was only allowed to be Califonia licensed after completing over 3,000 hours of Masters level training and passing a rigorous State Board; 

3. The dry needling rules are illegal, because they would allow physical therapists to engage in acts that are outside the legal scope of practice for physical therapy as defined by Virginia's General Assembly. There is nothing to support that the General Assembly ever intended to allow physical therapists to insert acupuncture needles into patients absent the same level of training required for licensed acupuncturists. 

Thank you for considering my comments. 

Sincerely, Christine Grisham, L.Ac., Dipl.OM, San Diego CA