Palmer Receives NIH Funding to Expand Evidence-Based Practice

Palmer College of Chiropractic has received official notice of a grant award from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a branch of the National Institutes of Health.

The one-year, $110,000 grant includes an option for an additional three years totaling approximately $750,000. According to the college, the grant will aid in Palmer's ongoing efforts to further develop faculty, create a more evidence-based curriculum and expand research efforts throughout the college.

"Palmer is committed to providing the best education possible to future doctors of chiropractic," noted Dr. Christine Choate, executive director for research. "An important component of this process is to enhance our students' ability to think critically and to incorporate new knowledge about how to deliver high quality chiropractic care to patients. This grant will enhance Palmer's ability to carry out this important component of our mission. We are very excited that the NIH shares our enthusiasm for this team effort between research and academic affairs at Palmer."

Added Cynthia Long, PhD, a professor on Palmer's research faculty who along with Dr. Choate serves as co-principal investigator for this project: "We will start out by assessing attitudes and knowledge among faculty and students about evidence-based practice. This information will help us in developing training programs to assist faculty in incorporating research findings and evidence in courses throughout the curriculum.

The grant also will provide additional opportunities for faculty members interested in research to pursue small research projects and train through Palmer's master's program in the science of clinical research. Plans also include taking bioethics, scientific writing and other topics from the graduate program and offering this information via small-workshop format. Students also will have enhanced opportunities to conduct research," said Dr. Long.

The grant proposal, originally submitted two years ago, was resubmitted a year ago by William Meeker, DC, MPH, Palmer's former research head, who is now president of Palmer West. According to Dr. Meeker, "It was a long time coming, but the reward is worth the wait. This grant will allow us to begin implementing evidence-based practice throughout the Palmer curriculum. In addition, it is the early stages of implementing best practices in chiropractic throughout Palmer College of Chiropractic."

Educators and researchers at the University of Iowa and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, will serve as consultants to Palmer in implementing faculty and student training programs in evidence-based practice. In addition, a Palmer advisory committee, co-chaired by Drs. Choate and Marchiori and consisting of a cross section of administrators, faculty and students, will play a key role in implementing the objectives outlined in the grant proposal.

For more information, including a complete list of current and scheduled research endeavors at Palmer, visit www.palmer.edu/research_content.aspx?id=436.