San Francisco — Jonathan Berkowitz, Licensed Acupuncturist, has adopted VSee, a HIPAA compliant video platform, for his practice-Inquisitive Owl Acupuncture, on Folsom Street in SOMA. “This technology is highly applicable for Chinese Medicine”, said Berkowitz, “It allows me the time to engage with, and prepare for each patient, without requiring them to be in my office.”


VSee is a proprietary low-bandwidth, group video chat and screen sharing software tool. It came out of a Stanford University PhD project addressing the problem of making virtual teamwork easy and conveying trust over video.



VSee allows Jonathan, and his wife/ partner, Aiko Katatae LAc, to compartmentalize their practice. “We spend three days a week at the clinic performing acupuncture, and three days at home conferencing, and doing research", said Berkowitz, “ It gives us the ability to treat more people, without sacrificing proper detailed diagnostic procedure. It also saves time for our patients.”



Traditionally, patients discuss the details of their case in person with their practitioner. He/ she then design, and perform a treatment immediately. “There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that method” said Berkowitz, “I did it for years. However, I find my treatments, and herbal formulas, are far more effective, when I have the opportunity to access reference material, and thoroughly investigate my options.



VSee uses a managed peer to peer architecture similar to Skype. However, a server is used for address lookup and for administrative purposes. Data being sent and received among clients does not pass through the server. This data is encrypted using FIPS 140-2.” This makes the technology HIPAA compliant, and an appropriate platform for discussing private health details.



According to Peter Schnall's book, Unhealthy Work, stress has exploded to an invisible, $1 trillion health epidemic. That's more expensive than the cost of cancer, smoking, diabetes, and heart disease combined. Stress is a factor in five out of the six leading causes of death -- heart disease, cancer, stroke, lower respiratory disease, and accidents. An estimated 75 to 90 percent of all doctor visits are for stress related issues.



“Chinese Medicine is uniquely suited to treating any health issue where stress is a factor” said Berkowitz, “The challenge for busy people, is simply finding the time to take advantage of this modality.”


Inquisitive Owl Acupuncture maintains office hours until 10pm to increase accessibility to their services. “I foresee a time when after-work acupuncture becomes a norm “, said Berkowitz.” People are beginning to understand that their health must be actively maintained, and it is my responsibility as a practitioner to afford them the opportunity to do so.”



Inquisitive Owl Acupuncture
Jonathan Berkowitz
Inquisitive Owl Acupuncture
862 Folsom St. San Francisco, California, 94107
415 236 3623
[email protected]
www.inquisitiveacupuncture.com