Every month, approximately 500 new research papers are published in various journals around the world that relate to chiropractic practice. To stay current, a chiropractor would have to subscribe to over 100 journals with a total annual subscription rate of over $10,000, and read at least 25 related research papers each working day. Good luck.
Just tracking these papers is a major endeavor. Fortunately, much of the work is already accomplished by an organization called MANTIS (formerly Chirolars). MANTIS was created by Texas chiropractor Ronald Rupert, who sought to coalesce the chiropractic-related research and make it available to individual DCs and chiropractic organizations.
The problem of collecting, organizing, summarizing and disseminating important research information has plagued Dynamic Chiropractic since its inception in 1983. The vastness of the challenge demands a substantial commitment in staff, technology and ancillary resources. And so the project has been on the back burner at DC for over a decade.
During this same time, the NCMIC Insurance Company (NCMIC) has been funding numerous studies at various chiropractic colleges and at the highly respected RAND Corporation. NCMIC's funding of chiropractic research in the last five years is in excess of $4.5 million.
The challenge is to provide the profession with the new and important research developments in a concise and readable manner; material that the busy doctor can peruse and use in the clinical setting.
To accomplish this task, NCMIC and Dynamic Chiropractic have agreed to enter into a partnership publication called the Chiropractic Research Review (CRR). The CRR will be sent free to every NCMIC policyholder each month, and will be available to non-NCMIC policyholders by subscription.
The CRR will summarize the most relevant papers from the MANTIS database and other sources under the following categories:
Clinical ChiropracticThe 500 or so chiropractic relevant papers will be reviewed each month. The most relevant 50-60 will be selected and summarized into information that DCs will be able to share with patients and other health care professionals. The CRR will also provide ordering information for the complete text of the individual studies for more in-depth reading.
Musculoskeletal Health
Chiropractic Pediatrics
Diagnostic Imaging and Modalities
Sports and Fitness
Women's Health
General Health
Food, Nutrition and Herbs
Homeopathy
Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
The CRR will also provide each chiropractor subscriber with a free e-mail version of the newsletter specifically designed for patients and others in their community. This will arm people with information regarding their health and the efficacy of chiropractic. The e-mail format will make it easy for patients to re-e-mail the newsletter to friends and family (or print it and pass it around).
NCMIC has committed to a free two-year subscription for each of their policyholders. This will insure that NCMIC policyholders have full and complete access to all of the relevant research, and, most importantly, the time to review it.
"There is no doubt that the explosion of research information and the time constraints of practice have made it almost impossible for the chiropractic practitioner to keep up-to-date on what is happening in the world of research," concurred NCMIC President Louis Sportelli. "NCMIC has taken this bold step because we believe that it is imperative for each of our policyholders to be conversant with current research findings. This new project will provide our policyholders with an opportunity to not only read summaries of all relevant research, but will afford them an immediate opportunity to obtain the complete research paper for a more detailed review."
"Every doctor of chiropractic has two distinct audiences to educate. One is obvious and often overlooked, and that is the patient. The patient version of the CRR, To You Health, will provide a doctor with an opportunity to communicate with their patients information that is relevant, consumer-oriented and up-to-date.
"The second important audience which has become increasingly more important as health care is changing, is the medical and allied health community. The CRR will provide a wonderful opportunity for the DC to communicate and build a network with other health professionals by providing them with relevant, defensible, and contemporary information based upon the latest research. The partnership between Dynamic Chiropractic and NCMIC will afford the doctor of chiropractic a new and powerful tool to disseminate information, establish rapport, begin network building and provide the most powerful educational tool available this century to enable their practice to meet the demands of today's sophisticated health consumers and discriminating health providers."
NCMIC policyholders will be receiving the first edition of the Chiropractic Research Review in early April. Those DCs that are not NCMIC policyholders will be able to get the CRR for an annual subscription of $169. To find out more about the CRR and begin receiving it on a risk-free trial basis, call toll free 1-800-359-2289.
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Some doctors thrive in a personality-based clinic and have a loyal following no matter what services or equipment they offer, but for most chiropractic offices who are trying to grow and expand, new equipment purchases help us stay relevant and continue to service our client base in the best, most up-to-date manner possible. So, regarding equipment purchasing: should you lease, get a bank loan, or pay cash?
