Dr. Stephen Perle to deliver the prestigious McAndrews Leadership Lecture at NCLC 2018
ACA’s annual meeting, the National Chiropractic Leadership Conference (NCLC), is packed with great educational content and world-class presenters. Join us Feb. 28-March 3 in Washington, D.C., to hear from some of the profession’s most compelling thought leaders. Here we pose several questions to respected academic and researcher Stephen Perle, DC, who has been selected to deliver the prestigious McAndrews Leadership Lecture.
Editor’s Note: The content of Dr. Perle’s presentation is intentionally being kept under wraps…though the title, which has been released, certainly raises a lot of questions (and a few eyebrows)! For those like us who are curious, ACA Blogs tries to find some answers…
Dr. Perle’s Presentation: “Grilled Cheese, Candles and Beer” on Saturday, March 3. (For complete conference information and schedules, click here.)
Let’s just dive in: How did you become interested in the topic you are presenting?
When I was in my first of four different elementary schools, I walked home for lunch every day. My mom often made me grilled cheese sandwiches. When coming back from NCLC one time, a business professor sat next to me on Amtrak and told me about a class he taught, which made me rethink the importance of grilled cheese. My fourth elementary school was in Wellesley, Mass., which had rather unreliable electricity. We often had to use candles. Finally, I’ve found, like most researchers, a lot of inspiration in beer.
Okaaay…let’s move on. Who should attend your presentation and why?
I think this presentation is for every chiropractor or chiropractic student who would like to see our profession assume its appropriate place at the health policy table and as the first-line approach for spine related disorders, at minimum. We haven’t attained the cultural authority we should have, and I believe that my talk will help and inspire people to work toward that end.
Almost afraid to ask this one: What about your presentation topic (or you) may surprise people?
I think it might surprise people that before I joined Toastmaster International, speaking in front of a group of 10 people was more effective than peanut butter in gluing my tongue to the roof of my mouth. Likewise, because of my learning disabilities, which were diagnosed in 1969 in Wellesley, Mass., I rarely ever wrote anything until the word processor came along.
Getting serious…Are there any new developments in your specialty/topic area that make your presentation at NCLC 2018 especially relevant or timely?
I think that the volume of research and guidelines showing that what we do in clinical practice may be effective for so many spine-related disorders positions us well to help in the current opioid crisis.
Thanks, Dr. Perle. You have definitely piqued our interest! To close, what’s your best advice to a recent chiropractic college graduate (or, alternatively, what is your best advice to someone who has been in the field for several years and is looking for new challenges or ways to expand their practice)?
I believe that this is an absolutely exciting time to be a chiropractor. We have other hands-on treatments that we can learn to add to our already well-developed skill of adjusting. These treatments have good evidence of effectiveness, fit well within our scope of practice in most states and are consistent with our core values of humanism, therapeutic conservatism, wholism, naturalism and using the body’s self-repair mechanisms: from dry needling, McKenzie Technique, neurodynamics to rehabilitation (which even B.J. Palmer used). The body of research regarding what we can do clinically has expanded exponentially, and the greatest challenge is keeping up-to-date.
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Learn more from Dr. Perle about this topic by joining us Feb. 28-March 3 in Washington, D.C. Register for the annual meeting today by clicking here. Join the conversation online by using the hashtag #NCLC2018.
