Your Best Referral Source (It's Not Who You Think)
Dynamic Chiropractic Staff
| DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE
An exciting study just published (online first) in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine reveals the probability that U.S. medical physicians "recommend complementary health approaches (CHAs) to their patients." The authors used "physician-level data" from the "2012 Physician Induction Interview of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS PII), a nationally representative survey of office-based physicians."
While the most commonly recommended complementary health approach is massage therapy, the second most commonly recommended approach is "chiropractic/osteopathic manipulation." According to the study, 27.1 percent of MDs recommend manipulation to their patients.*
If you're tempted to discount these study findings because they include osteopathic manipulation, consider the following:
Chiropractic is named first in the survey choice: "chiropractic / osteo-pathic manipulation."
All chiropractors adjust / manipulate, but previous research (Acad Med, 2001) suggests that osteopathic physicians use manipulative therapy on less than 5 percent of their patients.
Research also has already established that chiropractors account for approximately 90 percent of the manipulation performed in the U.S. (Integrative Med, 1998).
But wait... there's more: The authors further examined their findings by medical specialty. They found that "chiropractic/osteopathic manipulation" is the most commonly recommended approach by general/family practice physicians at 54.0 percent. Imagine that: More than half of all GP/FPs recommend manipulation to their patients!
*The results of this study also tell us which medical specialties are less likely to recommend "chiropractic/osteopathic manipulation." It seems that psychiatrists, OB/GYNs and pediatricians may take more work on your part to generate a referral relationship.
Building on a historic March 2026 meeting between Make America Healthy Again and chiropractic leadership, MAHA has announced the launch of the MAHA Chiropractic Hub, “a coordinated national partnership uniting MAHA Center, MAHA Action, and the chiropractic profession, including national associations, state organizations, practitioners, educators, researchers, and patient advocates. The Chiropractic Hub will advance federal policy, expand patient access, and build broad public support for chiropractic care across America.”
The chiropractic profession is confronting one of the most significant federal regulatory threats it has faced in decades. A new U.S. Department of Education (ED) accountability framework – commonly referred to as the “Do No Harm” (DNH) regulation – could place many chiropractic programs at risk of losing access to federal financial aid (student loans), potentially reshaping the future of chiropractic education and workforce development across the United States.
Pain has become the dominant language of musculoskeletal healthcare. Numeric pain-rating scales and symptom reports are routinely used as primary indicators of clinical success. But while pain reduction is meaningful, it is an incomplete and often misleading representation of recovery. This has real consequences for patient adherence, long-term outcomes, and how conservative care is perceived within the broader healthcare system.
