Yee Wing Tong, M.D.

Dr. Yee Wing Tong was born in China, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 14. He attended undergraduate school at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), initially majoring in physics, then changing to biology when he decided to embark on a medical career. He obtained his medical education at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, and his anesthesia training at the LA County-USC Medical Center.

During his fourth year in medical school, he was exposed to acupuncture. Skeptical at first because of his western scientific background, he tried acupuncture for various symptoms, and subsequently became interested in Chinese medicine.

In 1977, he started practicing surgical anesthesia. Meanwhile, he managed pain disorders by combining acupuncture and anesthetic techniques, such as nerve blocks, epidurals, and cryoneurolysis. He called this approach Neuro-BioEnergetics, or NBE treatment. It was through this combination practice that he gradually realized the fallacy of drug and surgery treatment, namely, they treat symptoms rather than the causes of a disease. In 1984, he discontinued his practice of anesthesia and devoted full time to pain management.