The Problem at Hand:
Throughout the world, there seems to be a drive to eliminate chiropractic care for children. In the US, insurance companies are refusing payment and malpractice companies are now even turning down chiros who see kids! In the UK we are witnessing a rogue reporter making fame on his chiropractic criticisms and his recent press in AU is rippling through the country like a bad computer virus. We saw last year how the Victoria board tried to institute guidelines to eliminate chiropractic care for children and if you remember, the ICPA sent out a call of participation to all of you to evaluate the proposed guidelines with the AGREE document. AU chiros responded and the ICPA Research Director, Dr. Alcantara submitted a response to the Victorian Board on behalf of AU chiros. (read more here: http://www.icpa4kids.com/research/ICPA_AU_Response.htm)
The Biased Conditions:
Everywhere the cry is: there is no research, so chiropractic care for children will be determined unsafe until there is!! Of course we know this is biased and absurd considering the plethora of medical treatments for children that are truly "experimental and investigational" (see Pathways editorial here:
), but we can complain from now until the kangaroos stop hopping how we are being held to standards way beyond the medical profession, or we can be proactive and get the necessary data to substantiate our care!
The Solution:
Several years ago, the ICPA (http://www.icpa4kids.com/)initiated a Practiced Based Research Network (PBRN) to collect data on the safety of care for children and pregnant mothers. It is the largest and most successful machine for data collection in the profession today. Its importance is that it is establishing evidenced based care that is grounded in what you are doing in your office! Your clinical experiences and successes become the evidence for your care. What a concept! Read more about our PBRN here:
Our Successes:
In the US, we initiated the PBRN with our Phase One Children's Safety a Retrospective Analysis. We submitted various stages of data for conference presentation and journal publication. We presented globally both in and outside of chiropractic research forums. Now, we just received acceptance of this paper in a major CAM journal here in the States. This is huge and their interest was significant. When the paper is published this fall, our press release and the abstract will be announced via our PedEx e-news updates. We recommend that you sign up for these e-newsletters here: PedEx:
/ to stay current on this and all chiropractic family wellness updates.
Continued Momentum:
In the US, we recently launched Phase Two of our Children's Safety PBRN. It is a prospective survey and our US and Canadian doctors are enthusiastically submitting data from their practices. As you know, a prospective study carries more weight and we are thrilled to have this level of research to contribute to this pressing need in our profession. NOW, we have designed a PBRN just for AU. Taking into account your special needs and the climate you are experiencing, Dr Alcantara created this PBRN, and received IRB approval from Life University. All you need to do is give us the data!!
A Turn Key Operation:
To participate, you need only to visit this link:
and register for the PBRN. Once you are registered, you will receive the instructions and forms for data collection. We are asking that you contribute at least five cases, although the more entries, the better.
Timing is of the Essence:
We will be collecting data over the next several months, however because of the severity of the situation, we are asking for immediate participation so we have some data ready for preliminary calculation and publication. Please sign up here:
