Editorial
Chiropractic's Current State: Impacts for the Future

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Abstract

The chiropractic profession is currently facing a shift in practice and health care environments. This editorial reflects on the current state of the profession and suggests that the profession should move from the thinking and practice styles of the past that primarily attempted to prove patient care and practice to a more productive approach that strives to improve patient care and practice. The following primary areas that require attention are discussed: (1) evidence-based and best practices–oriented research priorities; (2) constructive engagement of the greater health care system; and (3) successful ethical business models.

Section snippets

Professional Debates and Priorities

It is worthwhile for chiropractors to reflect on several business-as-usual approaches and their juxtaposition with what is happening in health care to remain as meaningful contributors to health care delivery and ideally enhance our ability to constructively engage in this delivery. The role that chiropractors play in the care of patients tomorrow will be a reflection of the changes we set in motion today.

The Institute for Alternative Futures recently published a report that summarized the

Primary Areas of Development

The moral of the story is that resting on one's laurels is a recipe for being eaten alive by the competition. I believe that chiropractic institutions and organizations need to develop a much greater sense of urgency in the following 3 areas:

  • 1.

    Evidence-based and best practices–oriented research priorities–We need to emphasize proactive applied research that helps figure out how to help patients get better quicker and at a lower cost as compared with what we do now and to develop effective

Conclusions

There is no magic legislation, no ultimate clinical trial, no absolute research study, and no perfect guideline that will endorse the status quo to turn back reimbursement to the good old days. Neither will the supreme enlightenment of the loyal opposition on the horizon permit us the luxury of procrastination or abdication of the hard work that is needed now.

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Cited by (9)

  • Caught in the crosshairs: Identity and cultural authority within chiropractic

    2011, Social Science and Medicine
    Citation Excerpt :

    I am using scope of practice here to refer to claims of the appropriate jurisdictional niche of the profession. Setting a narrow scope as neuromusculoskeletal spine experts or back/neck pain specialists has been advocated by several segments within the profession (Mootz, 2007; Murphy et al., 2008; Nelson et al., 2005; World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC), 2005). Others are vehemently opposed to this (Duenas, Carucci, Funk, & Gurney, 2003; Kent, 2009; Riggs, 2007; Rosner, 2005; Sportelli, 2006).

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