After an announcement by the World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) that they were to "chair an AHCPR subluxation panel," an inquiry was made by the Dynamic Chiropractic editorial staff to get the details of the new panel. Upon discussion with senior administrators of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, it was discovered that there was no such panel sponsored or supported by the agency.
The WCA announcement was then faxed to top AHCPR officials who read it with "great surprise." According to J. Jarrett Clinton, M.D., director of the AHCPR, the only involvement the agency has had with the WCA was a one-hour conversation over lunch explaining the function of the agency and to send a guest speaker to one of the WCA conferences to give a very generic presentation -- something the AHCPR would do for any group within any health care profession.
When Dr. Clinton was asked if the AHCPR was cosponsoring, funding, or had any kind of formal relationship with the WCA, he replied, "Absolutely not."
Fortunately, from the conversation with Dr. Clinton, it does not appear that the misleading article had any damaging effects on the chiropractic profession's developing relationship with the AHCPR; although, it is not clear if there is any kind of relationship between the AHCPR and the WCA that could be in jeopardy due to the obvious "embellishments."
When I graduated from chiropractic college in 1981 and started practice, I heard it all, and very little was positive. “You are a quack; you do not know what a subluxation is; you couldn’t get into a real health care program, so you chose the one that is slightly above a mail-order degree; you have no proof that chiropractic works; Are you really licensed?”, and so much more.
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A central challenge in creating our identity is that chiropractic is a method of care, not a technique or procedure. This is an important concept for us to promote. Our patients are treated with lifestyle modification, exercise, nutritional supplements, diet and a whole-body approach to accelerate the natural healing process. We are not simply CMT providers.
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