article archive
November 2005
An open letter to chiropractors
by Bob Blanks, PhD, RCS President
I would like to take this opportunity to fill you in on the
progress of the past six months, and to tell you about several
new and exciting projects to be coordinated by Research & Clinical
Science (RCS).
IRB approval and electronic data repository:
As you know, RCS is an Electronic Chiropractic Record (ECR)
company. Full IRB approval has been obtained to create an
interactive electronic data repository to track all patient
data from participating chiropractic offices. Note that we
will be collecting health outcomes data from chiropractic
offices worldwide. This international study may seem large
but is necessary to control for the thousands of patient
sociodemographic, clinical and other outcome measures.
The system
will accommodate data from chiropractors practicing up to 65
different techniques and using any variety of outcome measures
(e.g., X‑rays, surface EMG, etc.). The electronic
data capture network is HIPAA compliant, and protects patient
privacy by using custom software to redact all patient identifiers.
Once the data sets are complete they will be made available
to any group requesting the information for research purposes,
and to members of our scientific panel for their research.
The long‑term objective is to promote evidence‑based
chiropractic.
The RCS network will create the largest data repository
in chiropractic‑ think of it as a practice‑based "Framingham" study.
Training
sessions for participating data collection sites: These RCS
training sessions cover all required training for research
participants (human subjects consent, electronic data capture,
data entry, compliance, etc.) in an intense 14‑hour weekend course. Clearly, a multi‑center
clinical study of this scope requires tremendous coordination,
but we have a great team of individuals experienced in conducting
health outcomes studies of this type and others who are well‑connected
in the field of chiropractic.
First RCS International Scientific
Advisory Panel and Research Symposia: As part of our first
International Scientific Board Meeting, we have arranged
a mini‑conference to be held
in Washington DC, Saturday May 5‑6 in conjunction with
the annual World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) Summit Meetings.
I arranged to have some members of our scientific panel speak
about their research objectives focusing upon a central theme
of "Early Biomarkers for Disease Prevention and Health
Promotion." I have scheduled a one‑hour panel
discussion, allowing all members of the Panel to address
specific questions on brain diseases, child health, elder
care, allergic asthma, growth factors and stem cell research,
osteology etc.
Future research: RCS will rely heavily on the
International Scientific Advisory Panel to provide direction
for the next phase of research. Once the current "characterization
phase" has been completed, RCS will be able to initiate
several clinical trials and other research formats to evaluate
chiropractic in relation to general health measures or specific
health conditions. RCS will rely on the advise of the ISAP
for topic areas, research design, and outcome measures for
clinical research, and the types of experiments required
for hypothesis driven research underlying the mechanisms
of mind‑body communication in chiropractic.
Challenges
to working within the profession: Finally, some of you will
be aware that there are several major factions within the field
of chiropractic. As I understand it, one faction wants to align
with medicine and focus on musculoskeletal (low back) pain
relief, whereas the other follows the original tenants of chiropractic
as a system of care with potential applications across many
body systems. These two factions sometimes bring criticism
from the biomedical community and from within chiropractic
itself. RCS has made it clear that we will work with any and
all members of the profession who value scientific, evidenced‑based research because
this is our goal. We are conducting legitimate IRB‑approved
health outcomes research and we have nothing to hide from
those with political agendas. Frankly, as chair of a medical
IRB at UCI for many years, the factions in chiropractic almost
seem minor compared to some of the hotly contested issues
in biomedicine and some of the sponsor‑driven protocols
from the pharmaceutical industry.
RCS has launched a major health
outcomes research program that will produce much valuable
information that should benefit the population, health education,
research and hopefully produce sufficient peer‑reviewed
research to favorable impact health policy reform.
(Dr. Blanks
is Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at
Florida Atlantic University and a past Professor of Anatomy
and Neurobiology at the University of California, Irvine.
Prior to this he spent two years at the Max Planck Institute
for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany and two years in
the Department of Anatomy at Harvard Medical School. Dr.
Blanks is on the Advisory Board of the International Spinal
Health Institute, is a Board Member of the Council on Chiropractic
Practice and is actively involved in chiropractic research