A new cohort of residents has joined the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system’s Chiropractic Residency Program this fall. Several chiropractors participating in the program will continue ACA’s blog series on the residencies over the next year, sharing their experiences and lessons learned working as part of an integrated hospital team. The residencies were launched in 2014 to provide participants with advanced clinical training in complex case management. 

Christine Goertz, DC, PhD will be joining Duke Health’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in October 2019 as a professor and director of system development and coordination for spine health. As the American Chiropractic Association’s (ACA) senior scientific advisor, she has served as a trusted counselor to ACA leadership in respect to research affecting the association’s legislative, regulatory and payment policy initiatives. She also serves as the chair of ACA’s Committee on Quality Assurance and Accountability.

ICSC presenter Carolina Cancelliere, DC, PhD, is a clinical epidemiologist who serves as research chair in knowledge translation for the Canadian Chiropractic Research Foundation and as a faculty member in health sciences at Ontario Tech University. She and her team are working to demonstrate how chiropractic care can be applied to help patients suffering from disabilities related to spinal disorders. At ICSC, she will participate in the session “Translating Spinal Care Research into Practice." In this ACA Blogs post, she answers questions about her upcoming presentation.

The Interprofessional Collaborative Spine Conference (ICSC) will bring together members of the chiropractic, osteopathic medicine and physical therapy professions to tackle topics related to manual therapy and its use—amid the opioid epidemic—in treating low back pain and other conditions. In his presentation, “Implementation Science/Knowledge Translation Session: Osteopathic Perspective,” Michael Seffinger, DO, a professor at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, Western University of Health Sciences, unpacks the sometimes conflicting and sometimes incomplete evidence using his osteopathic lens.

In Part 2 of our conversation with ACA’s NextGen members, they share their experiences to date with life and practice, post-graduation. There are many lessons to be learned and questions to ask as you embark on a career in chiropractic; here's what the next generation of chiropractors have taken away from their first few years in practice. 

As chiropractic students get ready to graduate and enter the workforce, eager to make their mark in an ever-evolving healthcare world and help patients get well, it's normal for them to be excited and nervous at the same time. There is nothing wrong with needing a little guidance, and luckily, ACA’s NextGen members are here to help. Having graduated within the past five years, NextGen members are fairly new to the workforce, and the struggles and successes of chiropractic college are fresh in their memories. In this first of a two-part series, NextGen members share the best advice they received as students...and what they want YOU to know before venturing into practice.

Anthony Delitto, PT, PhD, FAPTA, dean of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, will be the keynote speaker at the Interprofessional Collaborative Spine Conference (ICSC), Nov. 8-9 in Pittsburgh, Pa. In his presentation, “Non-Pharmacological Back Pain Management: Collaborative Solutions,” Dr. Delitto will discuss how, in the wake of today’s opioid crisis, there is an elevated value placed on chiropractic, physical therapy and osteopathic therapies. He will review the evidence surrounding non-pharmacological treatments and spinal manipulative therapy for back pain, and how manual therapy providers implement this kind of pain management—including how they educate patients about pain.  

The topic of clinical effectiveness for spinal manipulation and exercise is extremely timely and relevant to today’s healthcare provider. However, there is one aspect of this topic that continues to confuse both clinicians and patients: namely, how to interpret the mixed messages about the clinical effectiveness of manual therapy and exercise for management of low back and neck pain. There have been multiple systematic reviews of the spinal manipulation literature with conflicting conclusions. The same is true of the literature regarding therapeutic exercise. How then does one justify the use of these treatments?

Being a leader can be one of the most rewarding ways to give back to your community. N. Ray Tuck, Jr., DC, of Christiansburg, Va., has learned the value of being involved through leadership in organizations that share his mission and vision. He has held various national and state positions over the years, including president of both the American Chiropractic Association and the Virginia Chiropractic Association, but his latest post as president of the Virginia Board of Medicine, an integrated board that governs both the medical and chiropractic professions in the state, is a new adventure.

Research evidence suggests following guideline recommendations can improve quality of care and clinical outcomes. However, translating recommendations into clinical care for individuals can be challenging because guidelines, by nature, tend to inform care on a general level. Further complicating guideline adherence is confusion caused by inconsistent terminology and the existence of multiple guidelines for single conditions, among other issues. Inconsistent recommendations within guidelines raises the question, “Is there common ground among guidelines for musculoskeletal conditions?” To answer this question,  researchers identified 11 recommendations that consistently appear within current guidelines.