American Chiropractic Association
ACA Ranked High Among Washington’s Elite Lobbying Groups
The ACA runs one of the most influential advocacy operations in Washington, DC, according to a new listing of the 25 “most effective grassroots lobbying organizations for health care in the United States.” The ACA is number 19 in a ranking compiled by an official of the American Political Science Association and reported in the Washington Times on November 26, 2003.
Out of thousands of groups that lobby Congress on health care issues, the ACA and just 24 other organizations are singled out for their effectiveness in communicating with Capitol Hill and recognized for being “highly successful in building connections between their members and Congress on a wide geographic basis.”
“This ranking confirms that the ACA and the chiropractic profession have a place at the table when health care policy decisions are made in Washington, DC,” said ACA President Donald Krippendorf, DC. “Very simply, elected officials know that the ACA is a force to be reckoned with. When our members speak out on health care issues, they’re listened to and heeded.”
Michael T. Heaney, a research fellow with the American Political Science Association and the author of the ranking, conducted anonymous interviews with 77 health care aides to U.S. senators and congressmen/women between April and July 2003. The result has been several significant legislative victories for the chiropractic profession in recent years, the most recent being the inclusion of a Medicare Chiropractic Demonstration Project in the newly signed Medicare reform bill.
International Chiropractic Association
Continued Coverage of Discredited “Stroke” Article Raises Serious Questions of Journalistic Responsibility
The re-appearance of a news report on WNBC New York, based on a thoroughly discredited article that appeared months ago in the medical journal Neurology, has raised serious questions about the motives of the broadcast agency carrying the story. Entitled “Study: Chiropractic Adjustments May Increase Risk of Stroke,” the piece appeared on November 6, 2003. Presented by the station’s “health” reporter David Marks, MD, the issue of chiropractic safety was once again raised, but offered no additional evidence, no credible data and no new perspective, other than the opinion of a medical neurologist, whose experience on the issue of chiropractic procedures is completely unknown.
ICA Board Calls for Profession-Wide Dialogue on Chiropractic Education and Accreditation
The Board of Directors of the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) has issued a call for a serious profession wide dialogue on the challenges and needs of chiropractic education, in light of the current intense controversy surrounding the educational accreditation process. During their Mid-Year Board meeting on February 25, 2003, the ICA Board adopted a statement that expressed concern over the state of chiropractic accreditation and called for a national dialogue on how this process might be improved. This resolution is meant to voice the concerns of the many thousands of individual doctors of chiropractic and the dozens of chiropractic organizations that have contacted the ICA regarding the nature and direction of the operations of the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE).
For more information, go to www.chiropractic.org.
World Chiropractic Association
WCA Announces Annual Awards
The World Chiropractic Alliance is proud to announce the following recipients of its annual Chiropractic Awards to be presented during the WCA International Summit in Washington, D.C., April 29-May 1, 2004:
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Chiropractor of the Year: Leona Fischer, D.C. A member of the WCA International Board of Governors, Dr. Fischer served as a U.S. Navy Special Operations medic assigned to the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit. She showed true courage under fire in 2003 as one of only two members of the Veterans Affairs Chiropractic Advisory Committee to vote in favor of direct access for chiropractic.
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Outstanding Service: Jerry Hardee, Ed.D., president of Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic. After the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC) passed a statement on diagnosis that all but gutted the “Chiropractic Paradigm” that had won nearly unanimous applause from the profession, Dr. Hardee was the first college president to stand up to the group in opposition.
- Researcher of the Year: Madeline Behrendt, D.C. By countering the medical and drug industry propaganda with hard scientific evidence, Dr. Behrendt has been able to gain attention and respect for chiropractic. In 2002, she was named Associate Editor of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research.
- Humanitarian of the Year: Bobby Doscher, D.C. For 26 years, Dr. Doscher has dedicated herself to providing service to severely sick and handicapped children at Oklahaven Children’s Chiropractic Center. Expanded under her leadership, the Center’s current home allows room for future expansion to serve even more children, to conduct research and to educate people about the benefits of a natural, drug-free health care and the chiropractic way of life.
For more information, see