Your Best Referral Source (It's Not Who You Think)
Editorial 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.
Being proactive vs. reactive with tax planning will have a tremendous impact on profitability and long-term wealth creation. Keep in mind, I am not a CPA and I am not giving tax advice. Rather, I’m passing on information that I learned as a practice owner and now implement in my financial planning practice. While not an exhaustive list, here are a few items to contemplate in 2025 as you watch the dollars in your practice.
Part 2 of this three-part article on recogizing and diagnosing delayed-onset motor-vehicle acident (MVA) injuries in clinical practice discusses traumatic Schmorl's nodes, post-concussion syndrome and posttraummatic syrinx. Part 1 covered traumatic subdural hematoma, stroke due to MVA and traumatic central disc herniation.
Research now shows that limited hip internal rotation can significantly contribute to low back pain. This may be caused by hip joint variants, but more commonly by trauma causing adhesion of the hip joint capsule or even prolonged sitting, which overactivates the hip flexors and abductors, and underactivates the hip extensors and adductors.
