The Four Year Master’s Degree

The Master of Traditional Oriental Medicine (MTOM) degree, just like a Western medicine medical degree, is a 4 year program comprised of both didactic and clinical education. Also like a 4 year Western medicine degree, you’ll be thoroughly prepared to take and pass your board exams.

Year 1 – 2
The curriculum opens with the ABC’s of acupuncture, Oriental medicine and bio medicine. You will be introduced to theories and philosophies such as qi, yin and yang, constitutional make ups, zang fu (internal medicine), acupuncture points and meridians, tongue and pulse diagnosis and Chinese herbal medicine, including lab time in the herbal dispensary. You will also start an extensive study of Western medicine, beginning with biology, chemistry, biochemistry, medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, western nutrition and pathophysiology.

To prepare you for your clinical training, you will begin a 9 month study of acupuncture points and techniques as well as 150 hours of immersion into the clinical setting in observation theater and rounds.

We encourage you to start a daily tai chi and/or qi gong practice at the onset of your studies so you can begin to experience the value of these therapies early on. As such many students enroll in at least one of the two required tai chi and qi gong classes within their first two years. Emperor’s offers three of the four internationally-recognized styles of tai chi for students to choose from: Yang, Chen and Sun.

To conclude the first half of the program, students sit for a comprehensive Pre-Clinical exam which tests their comprehension of the first two years of coursework and successful completion gains them access to their clinical training.

Year 3 – 4
In the second half of the program, students focus on integrating and synthesizing the information they learned in their first two years. Classes take a more clinical approach and students spend approximately 5-15 hours a week applying their clinical skills while treating patients under the supervision of an instructor in Emperor’s Community Acupuncture Clinic and various externship sites.

Student interns are able to choose which clinical faculty they work with based on the faculty member’s medical specialty. Emperor’s boasts a wide array of highly trained specialists, many of whom are also MDs, in areas such as auricular acupuncture, blood disorders, cardiology, dermatology, gerontology, internal medicine, mental health, orthopedics, pediatrics and woman’s health, to name a few. Because of the high patient volume at Emperor’s College Acupuncture Clinic, all interns treat their own patients affording real-life experience of what it is like to be a private practitioner.

At externship sites such as Roy & Patricia Disney Cancer Center, the Venice Family Clinic’s Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center, Being Alive, and the Saban Community Clinic, where integrative medicine is the focus, interns work alongside MDs, nurses and chiropractic interns in patient treatment and round-table presentations.

Students also begin preparing for their board exams and entering the professional world with review seminars, practice management and marketing classes.