Lam Harvey LAc, PhD

Harvey and Kay are an adorable Chinese couple who seem to be experts in their field. They are very sweet and do their best to explain the case to their patients. I enjoyed seeing them very much because of their personalities and knowledge. I am leaving three stars, however, due to inefficiencies in their practice. There are only two appointment times — 11am and 3pm, Monday through Friday. My first visit, I was told I would remain in treatment for 30 minutes. I came on my lunch break and ended up being stuck in the room for over 45 minutes. On a weekend this would not have been a big deal but start to finish I was there for nearly two hours, and this interfered significantly with my job. I kept going, hoping that was a first visit one — off. It was not. Most recently, I returned on my lunch break and was escorted to a room where I remained for a half hour waiting for the Dr. to arrive. There were no other patients in the office. I ended up leaving without my treatment, and found the Dr. in the lobby, casually eating lunch. I imagine he did not know I was there, so I do not think it was malicious, but it still interfered significantly with my job. I will not be able to continue seeing them.

It might be a little unfair for me to give them only one star since I really never get to be seen by Harvey and Kay.
I was pretty suspicious abt them after reading reviews on Unilocal,but since my previous acupuncturist recommended Kay, I decided to give her a try and called and made an appt.
I arrived abt 10 mins before my appt, and at the entrance it says «we are open, please come in» so I entered, but found that no one was at the front desk, and no one came out to greet me. I thought that was fine, specialists sometimes have attitudes, or maybe they are taking naps, or both. So I sat down, begain texting with my friends to pass the time.
Checkpoint 1 was 10 mins after the appt time, yet no one came out, or no one came in. I decided to wait a lil longer. Checkpoint 2 was 20 more mins after and same thing. So I decided to knock on the room doors and see if they are still taking naps, and it turned out the whole clinic was empty. My last stop in the clinic was at the front desk where there is an appt book lying on top and there was my name and my appt time marked clearly and accurately as i remembered on it.
So I took off, quite pissed.
O and not to mention, they never bothered to call me back.
Maybe they just don’t care about making a business.

I have noticed with Acupuncturists, depending on where they were trained and what their studies consist of, they can be a bit dry in the bedside manner of things. I think this is due to the very ‘clinical’ environment they studied in. Other countries are much more stringent with their students than the US… however, Acupuncture Schools in the US can also be a bit dry.
I say this because if you are looking for a little love and attention from Harvey Lam, you ain’t gonna get it. Nor will he talk to you much as his english is not as polished as his skill as a doctor of Chinese Medicine.
As a practitioner — this man knows EXACTLY what he’s doing. I’ve seen him twice over the past 10 years for 2 separate ailments that I wanted addressed.
Between the needle sessions and the herbs he had me cook down and drink — I’ve been cured of both… and this is years ago now.
He uses the electrical stimulation machine along with the needles, which I don’t care too much about… I prefer moxa, but this is just my preference.
If you are not looking for a lot of hoopla, Harvey is your man… if you want a bit more care and more convo, another practitioner would suit one better.
I like to mix them up.
If I have something acute — I see Harvey
If I have something chronic — I see an Acupressurist (more care going on here)

The prior entry sums up Dr Lam very well. He lacks communication skills and I really did not like the electic pulse machine AT ALL. I still had remarkable results in the end. He knows what he’s doing even though he can’t explain it. The worst part about the office is it’s absolutely FREEZING in winter.

I had severe tennis elbow in both arms from work. A family physician told me to take pain relievers and live with it. I was a sceptic of accupuncture for a long time — but I felt that it was worth a try at least once — vs. taking pain pills. I went to Dr. Lam and had a session. He didn’t try to fool me by telling me he could see all of my health problems by looking at my toungue or feeling my pulse — he told me that the muscles and tendons are inflamed and accupuncture would help — a simple explanation that makes sense. The following day, after the first session, I was completely pain free and I had full motion of my arms back. Pain slowly came back over days but got better and better with each additional appointment to the point now that I have had no pain now for years.
I like the very straight forward approach he takes — no hocus pocus or trying to convince me that accupuncture is some magical treatment. I can tell when someone is trying to pull my leg — I never felt he was doing this.

I was referred to Dr. Harvey Lam by my orthopedic surgeon for a sore extremity. Dr. Lam is a member of the prominent Hill Physicians medical group and his treatment was covered by my HMO! I only had to pay a co-​payment for each visit.
Dr. Lam’s office is located in a very old Victorian and has granite tile floors, but the floors are noticeably not level. Pretty easy street parking.
My initial interview with Dr. Lam was brief (his English is only passable) and he stuck a bunch of needles in me and attached an electrical stimulator to each needle which caused specific muscles to jump. This lasted for about a half hour. I went in for the number of sessions approved by my HMO. You might want to consider listening to an iPod while undergoing the 30 minute acupuncture procedure.
Although I still have some occasional soreness, it is a lot better and I consider this, my first experience with acupuncture, to be a success and I’m happy that I saw Dr. Lam.
At the end of my first visit, Dr. Lam also gave me a fairly large herbal drink for another one of my chronic ailments and he charged me for that drink as well as for another week’s worth of his herbal drink.
The herbal drink tasted absolutely awful. If you’re wondering what that smell is when you first go into Dr. Lam’s office, it’s the herbal drink they are brewing in another room. The smell is unmistakable.
Dr. Lam’s partner, Dr. Kay Lam, gave me a list of the herbs and roots and other plant parts in the drink. I looked up the herbs in Wikipedia and noted that just about all of the herbs have some sort of alleged medicinal properties. But Dr. Lam’s list didn’t list the amount of each herb or the source of the herb. There doesn’t seem to be any peer reviewed studies about these herbs.
Accordingly, I decided against the herbal treatment. I was not referred to Dr. Lam for herbal or any other kind treatment for my chronic condition and my HMO would not pay for any part of that treatment. I was not happy that Dr. Lam had me try this herbal treatment without any real explanation to me.
Dr. Kay Lam is probably less proficient in English than Dr. Harvey Lam, but she seemed more interested in communicating and seemed more empathetic. You might want to consider seeing Dr. Kay Lam instead.
One more thing. On two occasions, Dr. Harvey Lam pulled out the needles and told me I could get up off the treatment table. On the first occasion, he forget to pull out one needle and I had to pull if out of my own body and give it to him. On the second occasion, I didn’t notice the needle stuck in my body until after I got into my car. Oops.