Less than 1 month after completing his family medicine residency at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, just as he was starting his 2-year, Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar training, he decided to base his research career on clinical trials of acupuncture. This, in turn, inspired him to obtain a PhD in Epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health so as to acquire skills and credibility as a research methodologist specializing in acupuncture clinical trials.