I have written before that it took chiropractic 115 years to care for 5-7% of the population. Frankly, that is powerful, considering the obstacles we had to overcome. However, it is not nearly enough and we, as a profession, have to do better. The status quo is not enough.
I have had the honor of meeting many who handcuffed themselves to their adjusting tables and were taken to jail for practicing chiropractic in the 1960’s. I have had the honor of being trained by chiropractors who studied under B.J. Palmer. I have had the honor of being mentored by many who cared for 300-400-500-600 patients in one day. I have had the honor of being taught directly by many of the masters who invented techniques that bear their names. I have lived a privileged chiropractic life.
It is now your turn to honor them and their contribution to changing the world by bringing chiropractic to 5-7% of the population. We cannot do the same things they did 40 years ago; we need to learn from the past and do better today and tomorrow. Thanks to today’s acceptance of chiropractic nationally, we have it much easier than they did; no one has to make the decision of surrendering freedom and going to jail for caring for a patient.
My goal is to get all of chiropractic to do whatever is necessary in order to care for 95% of the population within the next 5 years. The solution is so easy and here is a very simple first step towards that goal: We need, as a profession, to increase our credentials and make them transparent to the public, so the public can make an informed choice. Credentials are not part of the chiropractic culture. Every MD and DO must present their curriculum vitaes when applying for residency. This is a mandatory step and forces the doctors to be their best on paper. We need to do the same and, by doing so, will change the culture of chiropractic and will resolve one issue of how the profession is judged by outsiders. I have reviewed 1000’s of chiropractors’ CV’s and we need help.
I have urged every doctor in the nation to go to www.uschirodirectory.com and use the FREE CV builder in order to help in this process, because every doctor is judged by the courts, hospitals, insurance companies and many governmental agencies based on his CV. Unfortunately, many don’t complete this process. However, the chiropractic colleges can make this happen quickly and efficiently. They have the power to fix this problem and get us one step closer to the 95%. If they require each candidate to have a CV that is in an admissible format in order to enter into an internship, the problem will be resolved instantly.
Doctors need to take more meaningful continuing education courses to build their knowledge base and credentials. Our licensure boards have mandated CE for a reason. Use it and continually build your credentials on your CV. If used properly, it is also an incredible practice builder. Our licensure boards also need to render double credits for DC’s teaching CE. This will encourage more doctors to strive towards creating better courses for the profession. This is a policy that has been adopted by many State Bar Associations for offering continuing legal education credits for lawyers. We need to do the same.
In order to achieve that 95%, we also must focus on evidenced based research and peer reviewed papers. That is how the scientific world functions. The problem with chiropractic is that it works too well. It works so well that patients don’t need a paper to show them. However, the public is influenced by organized medicine and we must be able to compete in the scientific world, so that organized medicine recognizes what we do and moves the masses into chiropractic. Medicine bases its referrals on evidenced based research and we need much more of it to succeed in shifting the public. This has to do with the machine that moves governmental and private research money.
That is the reason that I, personally, work with the American Academy of Medical Legal Professionals (www.aamlp.org). They have just created the JAAMLP, a peer reviewed journal of the Academy, to have a forum to publish evidenced based results for the scientific community to learn what we already know: Chiropractic works and should be the public’s first choice for subluxation related problems and to attain high level wellness. There are other peer review journals in chiropractic and every one of us needs to read, support and contribute to their success because their success is chiropractic’s success.
Over the next few months, I will be sharing with you what each of us can do individually and as a profession to make that dream a reality.
The movement is called 95 in 5.
Dr. Mark Studin is the President of CMCS Management which offers the Lawyers Marketing Program, Family/MD Marketing Program and Compliance Auditing services. He can be contacted at www.TeachChiros.com or call 1-631-786-4253.