The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH, is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late 1880s and is now part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The NIH comprises 27 separate institutes and centers of different biomedical disciplines, and is responsible for many scientific accomplishments.
The NIH created MedPix, an open-access online database of medical images, teaching cases, and clinical topics. It integrates images and textual metadata, including over 12,000 patient case scenarios, 9,000 topics, and 60,000 images. Its primary target audience includes physicians and nurses, allied health professionals, medical students, nursing students, and others interested in medical knowledge.
As part of my ongoing commitment to expand the reach of chiropractic as a profession and foster increased collaborative care with the medical community, I have accepted a position as an adjunct assistant clinical professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Office of Continuing Education, Department of Family Medicine. In this role, I actively foster research to be published in the NIH’s MedPix program.
Over the past 12 years, the Academy of Chiropractic and I have been dedicated to bringing pro-chiropractic research to the world with evidence-based research in a synopsis format, allowing professionals and laypeople to understand the outcomes. To date, on our research portal, 22,622,404 (TAP HERE for validation) people have read the articles (the cost is $0 for the articles), which I believe has “moved the needle” in chiropractic utilization globally.
We chose to focus on case reports as a starting point, and in the past six-plus months, with the invaluable help of doctors who have earned their fellowship in primary spine care and fellowship candidates, we have published 24 research articles in the NIH. During that time, 17,769 people have read the case reports in the US Chiropractic Directory, with countless more on the NIH site, demonstrating the power of collaboration in advancing chiropractic research.
Chiropractic is being seen as a solution and is increasingly being considered a primary spine care provider or the first referral option for spine. This includes professionals and the public, and articles like these contribute greatly to chiropractic's reputation.
If you would like to contribute to support our profession by submitting a paper to be published in “case report format,” I am accepting papers from any licensed doctor of chiropractic for publication consideration. Below are links to the first 21 published papers to help you better understand the process.
Author’s Note: Submit your paper to: DrMark@AcademyOfChiropractic.com.
