Because they have yet to pass national legislation protecting the chiropractic profession, Japanese DCs are in a similar situation that U.S. DCs faced. We were fortunate enough to be able to pass chiropractic licensure state by state. The DCs in Japan must accomplish this nationally, which has proved to be an extremely difficult task. And in spite of their efforts, Japanese DCs are currently faced with two chiropractic professions.
Life Researcher Works with State-of-the-Art Motion Analysis Equipment
Charles "Skip" Lantz,DC,PhD, a respected researcher in Life University's Human Performance Center, was recently loaned state-of-the-art RoM equipment by Zebris, a German company that manufactures motion analysis equipment.
The equipment went to Dr. Lantz out of respect for his work in RoM assessment the past two years, which has been published in Spine, JMPT, and the European Spine Journal. He has established protocols for measuring spinal motion based on robotic systems. Research groups in Zurich, Switzerland; Oxford University; National Health Sciences University; Palmer College of Chiropractic; and the Rehabilitation Center of Cologne, Germany have adopted Dr. Lantz's RoM protocols.
"Our system works with ultrasound waves," explained Wolfgang Brunner of Zebris. "It measures three-dimensional movement in space, and it measures in real time." The value of real-time measurement is that data is collected along the entire motion, rather than at a few fixed points.
The research group headed by Dr. Lantz is working to validate the new technology and integrate RoM and SEMG (spinal electromyography) information to develop more appropriate applications for the chiropractic profession.