Chiropractor Elected to New Hampshire House

Vincent Greco,DC, of Suncook, New Hampshire has won a seat in the state House of Representatives. Dr. Greco, member of the NH Citizens Alliance and the Coalition for Clean Air and Water, entered the race in September as a write-in candidate.

Dr. Greco has served as president of the New Hampshire Chiropractic Association, secretary-treasurer of the New Hampshire Board of Chiropractic Examiners, and president of the New England Chiropractic Council. He has also been a director and vice president of the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners.

Dr. Greco is a graduate of New York Chiropractic College. He has been in practice for 38 years, having served as his hometown's health officer for 37 of those years.

In his last month in office, President Clinton issued regulations that will limit doctors, hospitals and insurance companies from sharing confidential health information about their patients.

"Nothing is more private than someone's medical or psychiatric records," President Clinton said. "If we are to make freedom fully meaningful in the information age, when most of our stuff is on some computer somewhere, we have to protect the privacy of individual health records."

Previous to these regulations, there were no federal laws in place protecting the privacy of a patient's health records. Patients have had to rely on state laws, which range from comprehensive protection in some parts of the country to virtually no protection in other states.

Under the new rules, a patient can sign a one-time consent form on the first visit to a health practitioner that allows for disclosures of information for routine matters (billing and treatment). However, patients must explicitly authorize most other uses of their records.

Patients also gain the right to examine and request corrections to their health records. Employers are barred from viewing health information about their employees, unless the job directly involves providing health care. Companies and providers that intentionally violate the regulations could face criminal sanctions of up to $250,000 per violation and 10 years in federal prison.

Privacy advocates and lawmakers applauded the regulations, which are scheduled to go into effect in 2002.

"This will touch nearly every aspect of health care," said Janlori Goldman, the director of the Georgetown University Health Privacy Project. "We have tried for years and years to get these protections, and we have been unsuccessful until now. This is just a huge victory."

"The administration has done much of what Congress should have done," added Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

TORONTO, CANADA - The North York Chamber of Commerce presented the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) its "Company of the Year 2000" award in the "Private Institution with More than 50 Employees" category.

CMCC President Jean Moss, DC, MBA, expressed pride in the college. "This award belongs to all of the staff, students and faculty at CMCC, whose teamwork and dedication make everything possible," she said.

CMCC, in operation since 1945, is a fully accredited, limited-enrollment, independent school funded by Canada's chiropractic profession. It maintains seven teaching clinics in North York and Toronto, serving a total of 55,000 patients per year.

SAN JOSE, CA - Palmer College of Chiropractic West's ice hockey team, The Pride, has captured top honors in the 5th Annual Gold Rush Tournament, hosted at the Bay Area's Ice Centre. The Pride followed up a 12-4 win against UC-Berkeley with a dramatic 6-5 overtime victory in the championship game against local rival San Jose State University (SJSU).

Palmer West, which won the inaugural Gold Rush Tournament in 1996, and SJSU, the only other team to win a Gold Rush championship, skated to a 5-5 tie after regulation play. The 10-minute overtime period that followed did not yield a victor. The Pride captured their second tourney title by winning the ensuing shootout. Colin Chala, team captain for three of his four years with The Pride, scored the decisive goal and was presented the "Aaron Toews Trophy" as most valuable player of the tournament.

"Of the twenty guys on our team, we have nine first-year players, and three who have played four seasons," said Colin, a past president of the Palmer West Associated Student Government. "As one of the 'four-year' guys, one of the goals I set for our final season was to win the Gold Rush Tournament. For the first-year guys, I know the excitement of this experience already has them fired up to repeat next season. I don't think another three years will pass before we bring the Gold Rush trophy back to the campus.

"I'm honored to have been selected (as MVP),"Individuals don't win awards without the support of some equally great and inspired play by their teammates. I'm proud to have had the opportunity to play with some outstanding teams these past four years, and I'm proud to have had the opportunity to represent the college and promote chiropractic."

Palmer West, which finished the first half of its 2000-2001 season with an 11-2 record, is ranked sixth in the western division of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA), an intercollegiate organization of colleges and universities which do not field NCAA-member programs in ice hockey. The top four teams in the four regions qualify for the nationals in March 2001 at Indiana University.

In light of 9,000 reports of adverse reactions to chickenpox vaccine since 1995, the Illinois State Board of Health voted to defeat the chickenpox vaccine mandate, with reconsideration not possible until March 2001.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) includes the adverse reactions in its total of 112,699 recently released reports, with over 15 percent involving permanent disability and death. The vaccine's manufacturer has yet to conduct long-term safety studies on its product or the aborted fetal tissue cells, fetal bovine serum and monosodium glutamate the vaccine contains.

Vaccine producers are exempt from liability for injuries and deaths related to vaccinations, although more than one billion federal dollars have been paid out for vaccine-related injuries and deaths, financed by taxes on each vaccine dose.

By August 2000, Illinois had 231 compensation claims: 45 deaths and 186 injuries. The director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, Dr. John Lumpkin, could override the board's decision in March.

Lew Huff,DC, coordinator of the clinical rotations program at Texas Chiropractic College (TCC), has announced an affiliation agreement with the University of Texas, Houston Health Sciences Department. This allows TCC interns to work in rotations at Hermann Hospital, the Memorial-Hermann Hospital systems and LBJ Hospital of Houston. The college also seeks to sign a contractual agreement with LBJ Hospital and the Harris County Department of District Medical Education.

Dr. Huff credited TCC students Lee Verni, Ryan Konarick, Jason Abshire and Romero Torres with initiating the relationship with LBJ Hospital. Those students will be the first group of TCC interns to observe and assist three nights per week in the Emergency Medicine Department at LBJ Hospital.

Dr. Huff added: "This move strengthens our relationships and increases awareness of chiropractic among the medical community. These four students are outstanding examples of motivated individuals who set their free time aside to get involved where they are desperately needed. I am proud of their accomplishments, and they are the reason this affiliation now exists."

TCC also has educational-affiliation agreements with the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston, and Baylor College of Medicine's Sports Medicine Institute. TCC interns rotate through just about every major and minor hospital system from Houston to Galveston.

TCC recently worked with the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston Family and Integrative Medicine Department, headed by Victor Sierpina,MD, to obtain a 1.5 million dollar National Institutes of Health grant to investigate alternative medicine therapies and introduce them into the medical curricula.

Matt Geiger, 30, a seven-foot, one-inch, 248-pound backup center for the Philadelphia 76ers, is off the injury list and competing again. Matt, a chiropractic patient since 1997, was given a medical diagnosis of tendonitis in the right quadriceps muscle, but felt that the weakness in his leg came from another source. He sought out second opinions from a chiropractor, an acupuncturist, and a massage therapist.

The second opinions pointed to the hip as the source of his leg weakness. After having his hip adjusted and receiving two acupuncture treatments, Matt felt in form to return to action.

"It all seems to be helping," Matt reports.

The International Chiropractors Association (ICA) and the ICA Council on Fitness and Sports Health Science will present its ninth annual Symposium on Natural Fitness in conjunction with the Arnold Schwarzenegger Fitness Weekend and Expo in Columbus, Ohio, March 2-4, 2001. The event is co-sponsored by Cleveland Chiropractic College.

The 2001 Symposium will again feature action film star Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Mr. Olympia, Mr. Universe, and chiropractic patient, speaking on the benefits of chiropractic. Arnold will be accompanied by best friend and former fellow competitor Franco Columbu,DC.

Also appearing at the symposium will be bodybuilding legend Bill Pearl; television fitness host Dr. Pete Gratale; Dr. Thomas Deters, editor-in-chief of Muscle and Fitness magazine; Dr. Bob Goldman, founder/ president of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and president of the American Association of Anti-Aging Medicine; and Mike Spino,MA, fitness authority and coach.

"More and more fitness stars and champion athletes are putting their celebrity status behind chiropractic," observed ICA Fitness Council President Dr. Gerald Mattia.

"By sharing the meaning of health through fitness as part of a healthy chiropractic lifestyle, we can educate the general public on the power of our unique chiropractic science and on the vital relationship between fitness and health."

Ralph Davis,DC, a practitioner from Clementon, New Jersey, spoke on the subject of chiropractic care at the National Conference for Nurse Practitioners in Washington, DC last November.

"This was a great opportunity to build bridges of cooperation between the nursing and chiropractic professions," said Dr. Davis.

The conference attracted an international gathering of over 1,500. Dr. Davis was the first DC to speak at such a function.