These guidelines will, it is hoped, assist national health authorities in countries where modern Western medicine forms the basis of health care to establish regulations concerning:
• general requirements for basic training in and the practice of acupuncture;
• the knowledge and experience of modern Western medicine required of acupuncture practitioners employed as such in the national health care system; and the knowledge and experience of acupuncture required of physicians and other health staff wishing to include acupuncture in their professional work in modern Western medicine.