Congratulations to DC's 2008 Person of the Year
Dear Editor:
Congratulations to Dr. Tom Hyde for winning the 2008 Person of the Year award [reported in the Dec. 16 issue] and to the DC staff for making a great choice. In the article, Dr. Hyde said that "the DC who helped me with the Dolphins is still there today." Spencer Baron, DC DACBSP, has not only continued to serve as the Miami Dolphins' team chiropractor, but is also the president and founder of (arguably) the most elite organization a sports chiropractor can join. Membership in the Professional Football Chiropractic Society (PFCS) is automatic once an NFL team names you as its DC. Thanks to Dr. Hyde and other pioneers like him, Dr. Baron reports that 31/32 NFL teams are now represented in the PFCS.
Douglas Andersen, DC, DACBSP, CCN
Brea, Calif.
Let the MDs Treat Athletes
Dear Editor:
Most people probably read the Dec. 16 issue and said, "Wow, Dr. Hyde did a lot for the profession!" But I say, did he really? Did he give them what B.J. and D.D. taught was chiropractic? Or did he compromise our chiropractic philosophy and distinct and unique approach to mankind?
I believe he did this by not calling it something else other than a subluxation. He did this by putting chiropractic in the same arena as sports medicine. He did this by "treating" the athlete rather than giving them "care." So, did he really show these athletes what chiropractic was or did he show them how it could be used as a modality that is a subset of medicine?
I may not see the world-class athletes that Dr. Hyde does, but the young athletes I see only get chiropractic as it has been for over a hundred years - as the tool it was designed to be: a way of helping a human being be a better person today than they were yesterday because my specific adjustment allowed their nerve system and body to communicate more effectively.
Let the medical profession and its team render treatment to athletes. And let us deliver chiropractic care.
Tracy Gabbert, DC
Glendive, Mont.
Prescription Rights
Dear Editor:
We found the recent article on nurse practitioner degrees for chiropractors interesting [Dec. 2 issue: "Advanced Nursing Degrees for DCs"]. The article stated that one advantage of obtaining this new degree is the acquisition of pharmaceutical rights. These rights actually could be used to help patients get off medications.
Our question is: Why should we have to obtain an entire new degree to obtain these rights? As the "dentists or podiatrists of the spine,"1 the chiropractor is a primary-contact physician focused on NMS conditions, mainly of the spine. As a nonsurgical spine specialist, one of our first goals for our patients is pain control. We have many tools in our toolbox: SMT, flexion/distraction, neural mobilization, rehabilitative exercise, etc. Each of these tools helps us to manage spinal pain syndromes and improve spinal function.
Just one tool is missing from this toolbox: limited prescription rights. Adding a nurse practitioner degree to a DC degree is not really a step toward limited prescription rights, but a step toward broad prescription rights. We strongly believe that broad prescription rights are incompatible with the chiropractic identity (i.e., dentist/podiatrist of the spine).
Chiropractors do not need to obtain a new degree in order to have limited prescription rights. Education in the use of this tool should be included in the CCE college curriculum (as it is for the dentist or podiatrist). Alternatively, it can be provided as a chiropractic specialty, much like the chiropractic orthopedic or chiropractic neurology specialty, or as a postgraduate certificate. Regardless of how it is obtained, limited prescription rights should be available to chiropractic physicians without having to return to school to obtain an entire new degree.
Reference
Karl Vincent, DC
Cyril Fischhoff, DC
Donald Murphy, DC
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.
The results of a global survey released late last year (2023) unveiled some startling findings among medical and nursing students. The “Clinician of the Future: 2023 Education Edition” surveyed 2,212 students, of which 446 were in the United States, from 91 countries.
