Arya Nielsen, trained in the classical lineage of Dr. James Tin Yau So, graduated in the first class of the first acupuncture college in the United States in 1977, and is now considered the Western clinical authority on gua sha. Nielsen has an academic research doctorate and a faculty appointment at a New York teaching hospital where she directs the Acupuncture Fellowship for Inpatient Care through the Department of Integrative Medicine, a postgraduate opportunity where licensed acupuncturists round with physicians and treat patients. Her research includes both the physiology and therapeutic effect of gua sha, and research on the treatment of chronic pain in underserved populations. Nielsen is the author of the textbook Gua Sha: A Traditional Technique for Modern Practice and several other book chapters and articles. She also served on the Joint Commission Stakeholder panel on pain that led to a revision of their pain standard to clarify nonpharmacologic therapies as a necessary option for patients in US health care facilities and outpatient clinics.