Legislation Seeks to Direct Medical Board to Establish Alternative Care Guidelines for Physicians and Surgeons
Senate Bill 2100 (SB 2100), legislation put forth by Senator John Vasconcellos (D-San Jose), has been unanimously approved by the Assembly Health Committee and is headed to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. SB 2100 would require the California Medical Board to establish guidelines (on or before January 1, 2002) for licensed physicians and surgeons to practice alternative care. The bill would require the board (on or before January 1, 2003) to "review treatment alternatives for cancer patients and to establish standards for providing treatment alternatives in addition to conventional treatments."
Until the effective date of the new guidelines, SB 2100 provides for licensed physicians and surgeons to practice alternative medicine, "provided that the treatments are generally approved by the FDA or involve the use of products that are specifically exempt from FDA approval, such as nutritional supplements."
The full text of the bill can be found at http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset2text.htm. Simply type the bill's number (SB 2100) in the search field.
LACC Aids California AIDS Ride The California AIDS Ride, a 570-mile bicycle trek from San Francisco to Los Angeles, took place June 4-10. In this, the seventh consecutive year of the popular annual fundraising event, 2,800 riders participated. Once again, the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic (LACC) was involved. Thirty LACC interns were on hand to treat the riders, crew and volunteers.
On an average race day, the interns arose at 5 a.m. to prepare the next chiropractic "base camp," a place where the interns awaited the crews and riders. From 1 p.m. to 8 or 9 p.m., the interns treated a steady stream of participants for everything from low back and arm pain to injuries suffered in falls. During the event, most interns didn't get to bed until after midnight. The students provided 1,450 treatments to the riders and crew.
Dr. Christine Lemke, LACC's coordinator for the ride, called it "an exhaustive exercise," but added: "There's not one person on our team who would miss the opportunity to turn around and do it all over again tomorrow."
This was the second year that intern Angela Davidson participated in the "We are so proud of our faculty, interns, students, clinicians and volunteers," enthused LACC President Dr. Reed Phillips. "They introduced many people to the benefits of chiropractic and represented our facility with the quality that has become our trademark. It really is a remarkable feat."
One rider, Mauricio Ribeiro, was assisted by the staff several times throughout the expedition, and attested to its effectiveness: "The first time I came into the tent, it was for low back pain, and Chris handled it beautifully. Two days later, I had leg pain and immediately came to Chris for relief," he said.
A former rider in 1995, Dr. David Halverson was an intern for the 1999 AIDS Ride. He worked this year as a DC. "After two days of working the ride last year, I knew I was a doctor of chiropractic. I was thrilled to be a part of the team again," he said. "It's a very healing environment."
Over 1,000 volunteers took part in the AIDS Ride, which raised $11.5 million. The money will benefit AIDS research and help support victims of the disease.
