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Giving Thanks

Dear Editor:

So many blessings have been bestowed upon us chiropractors this year! Therefore, I would like to pay homage and give thanks where thanks are due.

Thank you John Triano, for reminding us that the subluxation is of paramount importance.

Thank you, Joseph Keating, for ensuring that we field practitioners would never fail to appreciate the differences between an academic and a doctor who actually adjusts people.

Thank you, Mercy Conference participants, for clarifying our role as primary care practitioners by issuing a dynamic and lucid set of clinical rules to follow.

Thank you, all you DABCOs, DACANs, rehabilitation specialists and other fellows of many letters, for doing your part in guaranteeing that patients will find low fees like mine to be a pleasant and welcome surprise.

Thank you, peer review consultants, for giving us the impetus to move away from the insurance business and back to fees that everyone can afford out of pocket.

Thank you practice management consultants, for helping us to brush up on our basic math (if you see 800 visits per week and induct 20 new patients per week, this equals a P.V.A. of ...? If you tell each patient to come in one more time per week, what will your new P.V.A. be?)

Thank you, esteemed political leaders, for keeping our attention focused on issues of national importance, like the chiropractic centennial, and off of trivial matters such as, say, why Medicare still makes x-rays mandatory for care reimbursement but won't pay us to take said x-rays (or for anything else besides A2000, spinal manipulation, for that matter).

Thank you, advertisers, for presenting us with an abundance of tools to use when our confidence in the adjustment falters.

Above all, thank you Dynamic Chiropractic, for keeping me abreast of all the news: good, bad, and otherwise. Without you, I would have no idea just how mixed up our profession has become.

Happy New Year,

Neal Blaxberg, DC
Pikesville, Maryland

Dear Editor:

I wish to congratulate Dr. Peter Martin for his insightful article on chiropractic education (December 4, 1995 issue of "DC"). He is right on target. During my 48 years in health care education, I have observed many colleges that were having difficulty in recruitment. When they decided to raise their standards, their enrollment soared. There are still people out there who appreciate quality!

In our school, we serve the broad spectrum of health care professional schools. We do have over 3,000 practicing chiropractic physicians that we got started. We're members of the National Association of Advisors for Health Professions. It is always embarrassing to listen to all of the other professions present their requirements of a BS degree and 3.2 GPA and then hear the chiropractic presentation of 60 hours and a 2.25 GPA! But CCE only requires 60 hours and a 2.25 GPA with 24 hours of science. There will be improvements as Dr. Martin pointed out with the four states requiring the BS degree for licensing. It seems a sad commentary on the chiropractic leadership that the state legislatures have the option of dictating chiropractic education policy!

I congratulate the chiropractic colleges that are leading the way for improving chiropractic education. I am chagrined about a few colleges that are offering their own pre-chiropractic programs with only the bare minimum of eight courses in science required by CCE. These students have no opportunity to get a better background because the additional courses just are not available. Is this homeopathy in chiropractic? The more diluted, the more potent? I don't think so! Incidentally, chiropractic is the only major health care profession that encourages students to complete their science pre-requisites outside traditional educational settings.

The other problem that is appearing in the chiropractic colleges is the internal BS degree upon completion of the D.C. degree. This would be fine if there were some additional requirements for the BS, but just conferring the BS for completion of chiropractic curriculum and giving the graduate an additional piece of paper to hang on his/her wall does not create better doctors!

Some of the colleges recognize the problem and require some rigor to qualify for the degree while others just confer the degree.

We work closely with most of the chiropractic colleges and even have preferred admission articulation agreements with most of the schools. We have the greatest respect and admiration for chiropractic but really wish that integrity would have more influence than greed in the educational planning.

The vast majority of our pre-chiropractic students have 90+ credits, 3.2+ GPA and surpass the minimum science requirements by taking anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry. They end up with about 40 hours of science. Many also elect to enroll in our course "Ethical and Professional Issues in Health Care." Over the past 15 years and 3,000 doctors, we are aware of only eight failures in chiropractic college with very few failures in practice or defaults on student loans. We can attest that better preparation does, indeed, produce better doctors!

Delta Gier, PhD
Dean of Health Sciences
Donnelly College
Kansas City, Kansas