Chiropractic and the Information Age

Warning! Do not read the following unless you are willing to be responsible for the knowledge you glean from it. Once you take this information in, you can no longer deny that you know what needs to be done but are unwilling to do it. It has long been said that knowledge is power, and the one with the most knowledge is therefore the most powerful. This concept applies not only to an individual, but to groups; in this case, the chiropractic profession.

"Today, Fast Wins, Smart Wins, and First Wins"

Knowledge has several attractive characteristics and benefits:

• It is endless. You don't diminish its quantity with use as you would with capital or energy.

   

• Knowledge builds on itself. It grows as it is added to. This is the slow, halting story of the process of mankind. We learn more as we go on.

   

• Knowledge is interchangeable with capital. Take, for instance, the service professions: doctors, CPAs, computer programmers, etc., whose knowledge and their ability to manipulate symbols makes them an elevated social group.

Knowledge today has a greater density and speed than ever before. What we see today is only a shadow of what is to come. A new world order of high technological wonders is arising at breakneck speed. Computers, satellite communication, high density TV, problem-solving software, and a thousand other new technologies are forcing a complete reshuffling of old values and priorities. Possession of knowledge and control of its dissemination will be the hallmark of successful enterprises of the '90s and beyond. Indeed all of the economic giants of our society are rushing with all their resources to stake out their turf in the emerging new info-culture. Chiropractic should be the health care giant.

What does all this mean to doctors of chiropractic? Please consider the following concepts.

I believe the task of the leadership of our profession is:

• to recognize the direction our info-culture is heading;

   

• to aggressively and opportunistically utilize this technology to our advantage.

The leadership has, for the most part, endeavored to unite our profession for all the right reasons. Thus, what follows is another contribution to the "good fight."

Here is what chiropractic must do, and do it first:

Chiropractic, either nationally or state by state, must control a full-fledged, feature rich, chiropractic computer Bulletin Board System (BBS) program and make it available to every chiropractic doctor in the country at an irresistibly low price. It must have so much value added in the form of special money making features that each field doctor will be willing to sign on and even convert the old, outdated software they now have. In other words, I want to see chiropractic directing and controlling the true political and financial power of the 21st century: information and speed.

Virtually all of the chiropractic organization across America have been made aware of this technology, its low cost, and the benefits our profession would derive from it. It is not new to the leaders of our profession. The inertia, i.e., the resistance to change is enormous. We, the doctors in the field, must communicate to the leaders in our respective states that this is an extremely viable concept that can be introduced, utilized, and expanded upon now.

Let's talk about the program. The computer Bulletin Board System will be written for, supported, and controlled by chiropractic organizations. The program will have many features and advantages. In addition to the benefits to all DCs, there will be several benefits to the host organizations including:

1. user fees from members and nonmembers 2. paid advertising from seminar hosts, distributors/suppliers, tips specialists (tax, legal, ins., etc.) 3. electronic claims agency commissions 4. travel agency commissions 5. sale of archival information 6. sale of organization goods and services

Some specific benefits include:

1. instant legislative alerts
2. instant doctor-to-doctor messages
3. instant dues status messages
4. instant insurance updates
5. instant travel information
6. instant seminar information and registration
7. access to research databases
8. access via credit card to products and dues payments

There are many advantages and angles that I have not gone into. However, you must understand: This concept has one major drawback -- it is replicable and do-able by competing forces within and without our profession. I am totally convinced that whomever executes the ideas I have outlined and does it fast and first can win and win big. I leave you to draw your own conclusions as to the consequences if these ideas are implemented first by another chiropractic organization or are implemented by the PTs, medicos, or osteopaths for their own agendas.

This program will not only benefit chiropractic immediately, but it will also keep us on the cutting edge of this technology as more and more professional offices realize and utilize the tools of communication.

We recommend that the chiropractic profession carefully think over the ramifications of this concept, and conversely, the results that non-implementation would or could produce.

Alan Tuthill, DC
Santee, California

Paul Tuthill, DC
Lowell, Michigan