Traditional Chinese medicine in San Francisco health planning: Implications for a Pacific Rim city

The purpose of this dissertation was twofold: (1) to provide background material on the Asian American culture and dual health care system in San Francisco; (2) to examine how Traditional Chinese pulse diagnosis (a renowned ancient diagnostic technique) can be used to help integrate the dual health care system in San Francisco. The overarching vision for the project is a culturally responsive health care system in San Francisco which effectively controls the spread of chronic disease.;In the general and individual pulse assessment sections the physicians achieved a significant p ;Other findings suggested that there may be some validity to Traditional Chinese pulse diagnosis; one of the physicians was able to achieve a significant result (p ;Data collection was carried out at On Lok Senior Health Services in San Francisco. Ten subjects were examined by two Traditional Chinese physicians; one using a Traditional hand palpation method and the other using a computer assisted pulse detection device. The physicians examined the pulse of the same 10 subjects and attempted to: (1) obtain the same pulse readings on a given subject (a test of the reliability of pulse diagnosis); (2) match subjects with their corresponding medical files on the basis of pulse analysis alone (a test of the validity of pulse diagnosis). Three precautions against experimenter bias were observed: (1) the subjects sat behind a screen with only the diagnostically relevant area of their wrists visible to the two physicians (a special glove was worn) (2) no contact was allowed between the two examining physicians at any time during the study; (3) the pulse examination schedule was altered in the middle of the day in order to avoid any detectable patterns.