When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
Joint Convention Unifies Chiropractic Organizations
It seems that every time you turn around, some DCs has launched another chiropractic group. Instead of celebrating our diversity, we tend to only further splinter the profession.
One organization that is making an effort to reverse this trend is the American College of Chiropractic Radiology. They have begun a new program to encourage chiropractic groups to organize joint conventions with state associations. Dr. Terry Yochum explains:
"I approached Dr. Jess Askeroth, the president of the Nevada State Chiropractic Association, with the idea of organizing a joint meeting of the American College of Chiropractic Radiology (ACCR) and his association. The ACCR would provide some of its top speakers, help augment the state association's membership, help raise funds for their political action committee and other endeavors, and help solidify and tighten their membership. Dr. Askeroth was elated with the idea. He and the executive board of the NSCA have worked very closely with me on this proposal. I'm acting on behalf of the educational committee of the ACCR, of which I am a member."Some associations might think that a joint convention might lessen the profits and exposure each organization would get on their own? Dr. Yochum doesn't agree: "We chose to do this because the chiropractic radiologists feel that we should do something to help the chiropractic profession at large and individual practitioners."
If this effort is successful, perhaps it will be the beginning of a trend. The chiropractic profession could see state associations and other organizations coming together to put on larger, more prestigious, better attended events. We asked Dr. Yochum why he thought chiropractic groups haven't opted for joint programs:
"I'm not quite sure why it hasn't been acted on in the past. If chiropractic orthopedic, neurologic, or sports injury groups would approach a state association and say, 'Look, we could dovetail our meeting with your state association convention. We can put on a program and provide the speakers at no cost to you.'The idea is certainly a good one: a unifying trend for the chiropractic profession. DCs involved with different organizations need to share time together for their mutual benefit. Talk to your state association about making your next convention a bigger, more exciting event."In our case, I was able to approach my friend Mr. Kent Greenawalt, president of Foot Levelers. They are paying the honorarium for each of our speakers. Thus the state association won't have to pay the biggest expense of any meeting.
"I think it's just an innovative idea. Our joint
convention will raise money for the Nevada StateChiropractic Association, and our American Chiropractic College of Radiology. The renown speakers will help attract people to come to such a program.
"I believe that with the anticipated success of the Las Vegas extravaganza that many state associations will probably wish to have us put on a program in conjunction with their state convention. I see that being very feasible. The lectures here are going to be pitched to the general practitioner's level. I think that's another reason why this meeting will be successful: It will cover all the imaging modalities: plain radiographs, bone scans, special imaging, myelography, computer tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. The programs will present the most practical, day-to-day things that chiropractors are likely to see.
"I'm sure we'll have many people attending and I can see the Texas Chiropractic Association, for example, lobbying the College of Radiology to hold its annual meeting in Dallas. We'd like to do this in conjunction with the Texas Chiropractic Association because we can anticipate this being advertised nationally, drawing people to those state association meetings that could never be drawn otherwise, because of the star-studded program and the uniqueness of the speakers that would be offered by the College of Radiology. It's been just a phenomenal response and I applaud my colleagues for giving their time to help the College of Radiology and also help the Nevada State Chiropractic Association."
Editor's note: The "Radiological Extravaganza '94" will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 15-16. For more information, please contact the Nevada State Chiropractic Association at (702) 324-2299.