History

Five Branches University was founded on an auspicious day - Feb. 4, 1984, on Chinese New Year, in the Year of the Mouse, at the beginning of a 60-year cycle. We had one classroom, a clinic with three treatment rooms, five teachers, 18 dedicated students, one patient a day, and one typewriter. Today we have two campuses, 12 classrooms, 33 treatment rooms, 100 teachers, 450 dedicated students, 600 alumni, and we see 140 patients a day. We have grown.

From the beginning, it was our intention to invite Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners to the West, to teach and transmit their precious knowledge of Chinese medicine and to share their subtle, yet powerful ways of practicing medicine. The history of Five Branches began when several of these extraordinary, yet humble, practitioners of Traditional Chinese medicine accepted our invitation.

The essence of our success has been the quality and dedication of our faculty/practitioners. Jeffrey Pang, LAc, Joanna Zhao, LAc, Sharon Feng, LAc, and Lucy Hu, LAc, have been with us for over 20 years. Richard Liao, LAc, Richard Shwery, LAc, and Shao Hua Li, LAc, taught for over 10 years. Today, our faculty number over 100 distinguished members.

The most meaningful events of our history however, are the memories of the hug and warm smile that a patient gives one of our faculty members when they meet outside of the clinic, the faculty member who shares how Chinese medicine saved their patient’s life, and the heartfelt gratitude expressed by a graduate at their graduation for the gifts received from their faculty during their time of study and training at Five Branches.

It is our comprehensive academic programs, the quality of teaching in both the classroom and the clinic and the deep and sincere dedication of the faculty, staff and students that have contributed significantly to the transmission of this incredible medicine into our communities and throughout the West.

Today at Five Branches

Over the past 24 years Five Branches has witnessed a tremendous flowering of interest in Traditional Chinese medicine. We are gratified to see its increasing acceptance by thousands of patients and into mainstream medicine. Five Branches University, its faculty, staff and students, have played a significant role in that growth and integration.

To continue to attain our goals of offering TCM education, training and healthcare at the highest level, we have expanded our programs to include a doctoral program; a Ph.D program with our sister universities in Hangzhou and Tianjin, China; specialized certificate programs in Five Element Acupuncture, Medical Qigong and Asian Massage; and the addition of our international studies program in locations throughout Asia.

The Future of Five Branches

Five Branches will move in two directions in the future. First, we will continue in-depth development of TCM education and healthcare through our master’s and doctoral programs and through the development of the first-professional doctoral, residency clinics and certificate programs. It is our knowledge of Chinese diagnosis, herbal formulas and acupuncture, tuina massage, qigong and taiji that offers the highest level of healthcare to our patients, to America, and the Western world. Secondly, we will continue to increase our level of education and training in Western medicine. This allows us to offer better healthcare, and to be part of a system of integrated healthcare and medicine. Both are necessary, and we are clear that TCM is the root.

There are four trends influencing where Five Branches University will be within the next 20 years:

• TCM universities in China and medical experts in the U.S. are interested in sharing their expertise in TCM and Western medicine. This is vital for the continued development of our doctoral programs and research and will provide us with valuable program and teaching resources.
• Growing public interest in Chinese medicine will result in more patients seeking highly qualified TCM practitioners. Our work is to continually improve our programs to provide the best educated and trained practitioners.
• Other healthcare professions and institutions will continue to discover the depth and efficacy of this medicine, resulting in greater cooperation among medical professionals and medical schools.
• Both patients and healthcare providers will continue to understand the advantages of integrated, multi-disciplinary medicine, offering a wider spectrum of healthcare modalities to both enhance health, and to diagnose and treat disease and disharmonies.

In the next 20 years, Five Branches will evolve into an international university, teaching high-level TCM education in English and Chinese, both in the U.S. and worldwide. We will offer TCM healthcare in an integrative medicine environment, including both outpatient and inpatient care. This high level of healthcare and medicine will be offered in a supportive and humanistic environment, reflecting, as a leading medical doctor at Stanford recently stated, “with simple kindness and caring”.

We are very privileged to have acupuncture and Chinese medicine, healthcare and education, at such high levels in the U.S. We express gratitude to the pioneers that worked so hard over the last 40 years to get us to where we are today, and to those that continue to contribute their efforts in the transmission of this precious knowledge and medicine to the West.

Academic Dean Joanna Zhao, LAc, and Senior Faculty Jeffrey Pang, LAc, and Sharon Feng, LAc with the first graduating class of Five Branches University. Several of the students pictured here have become professors at the University.		Presidents Ron Zaidman of Five Branches and Naida Zhang of the Zhejiang Chinese Medical University exchange gifts to honor the signing of an agreement to develop joint U.S. doctoral and Chinese PhD programs.