On a related note, MiTS, pg. 52 also provides the insight

So there is a mechanic to make Perm spells slightly more combat viable.

Example

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Nothing about the spell Influence that I have seen suggests to me that it can take effect before it becomes permanent. The rules for permanent spells state that they must be sustained for a lengthy duration before they are permanent.
And before they are permanent, what would you call them? A fully functional temporary spell? There is no mechanic supporting the use of a permanent spell as a short term sustained spell.
Is it an effect that starts the instant you begin the process of casting and sustaining to become permanent? I haven't seen any canon that supports effects taking hold before they become permanent.

So I suggest that the "spirit" of the rules indicates that a permanent effect should not be so short term as to be able to be completed and expendable prior to becoming permanent. I think that the classification and design of this spell are poor. It could work very well as an Instant spell with a much higher drain rating, or simply let the existing sustained control XXXX spells take it's place. Other effects that are classified as permanent are items that CAN take effect for the short term and yet still have their usefulness cancelled by an aborted cast. A heal spell is great, and it will save your life, but if the mage dies or leaves before it becomes perm, then you are in just as big of a shithole as before. Same with all of the health spells.

I've personally struggled with a player in my games that uses Control Thoughts. I've come to terms with it, as it is pretty well balanced by the drain, the multiple resistance checks, and the sustain penalties.

Is anyone using the ruling for permanent spells that they must be sustained for x turns to take full effect for other spells like heal, treat, antidote, detox, etc?

It also means that anyone playing a primary focused "Heal magic" character is going to be very bored most of the time. I need to examine this and possibly house rule it, because my first-time-playing wife wanted to be a "cleric".

It's not that its unimaginative. It's simply another perspective of the way the rules read.

Agreed. Perhaps it would behoove the writers to include the spirit of the rules in the actual rules itself. I can't see this being an issue if the spell was written better.

We do and the way its storied is that when someone is healing someone else, the effects of the healing begin at the moment they start casting the spell. The wound starts stitching back together, bones start mending, etc. When the spell is finished and the instrument (magic) is removed, all stays in place and is reconstructed the way its supposed to be. If the spell is interrupted, all of the magic's work is unraveled and the wound returns to normal. While magic is a bit abstract to think about, it doesn't seem very imaginative to have the mage wait 15 base turns to heal a wound while it remains open and then, all of a sudden *bamph*, it stitches up in a blink of an eye. That seems a bit too much like That Other Game for me.

Our preference.

Biotech (First Aid) is a SR "cleric's" best friend.

I would agree with this description, but I have heard people say the wound heals as soon as the spell is cast and the effects are permanent after being sustained the required turns. By their description, the mage heals the Sammy, the Sammy can roll intitiative w/o wound modifiers and attack/defend without the same wound modifiers as long as the mage sustains the spell. If the mage quits sustaining, then the wound modifiers come back into play.