Last Thursday, I spent some time using a website called search.twitter.com. I typed in the word “chiropractic” to see what I would find, as well as who I would find.
This is what I found. Keep in mind, I am not trying to throw anyone under the bus here. Thus the reason why I blacked out this individual’s Twitter username.
I clicked on this individual’s link and it took me to the Good Morning America clip where they featured the NUCCA/Blood Pressure study. I thought it was pretty cool to find a NUCCA doctor on Twitter, so I went to his profile page and clicked on the URL to his website to see who it was.
What I found was a chiropractic website that utilizes those generic, busy templates that are pretty common among doctors with websites. I went to the services page to see what he did in his office and this is what I found.
I didn’t see NUCCA on there. Do you?
So I sent him an @message on Twitter.
I didn’t hear anything back from him for a few days. But when I did, this is what he said.
My first thought, was “True, he has a point.” I know full spine chiropractors that get decent results adjusting Atlas on their patients, along with other full spine adjustments. I’m not saying that can’t happen, because it absolutely can.
My gripe is with chiropractors who are saying they are Upper Cervical Chiropractors when they are not. A few months ago, I checked out a website of a “Knee Chest” doctor that was listed on UpCspine. While he was listed as Knee Chest, his website showed him doing cervical breaks and lumbar rolls, hardly the stuff of Upper Cervical Chiropractic.
With that in mind, I replied back on Twitter. This is what I said.
Again, I didn’t hear back from this California chiropractor for a few days. When I did, though, I didn’t expect to read this.
I don’t expect he will get any calls on it either.
However, I truly thought he was a NUCCA doctor at first. That is where the problem is. How do we explain to the public that we are different without having full spine pretenders saying the same thing?
Telling people that you are a Specific Upper Cervical Chiropractor when you are a Diversified rotary break specialist is dishonest.
Upper Cervical Chiropractors and Students work hard to be good at what they do. It is not an overnight thing.
Instead of taking the easy way out and hitching a ride onto the coattails of Upper Cervical, these doctors should put in the time to be excellent at what they do.
I will leave you with three quotes from Dr. William G. Blair:
“In a world where we get less and less for our money, we, as a profession, should try to give better and better service to our patient.”
“We must not sacrifice quality of our service for quantity of patients.”
“Be Specific, Be Scientific, Be Precise, and give only quality care to your patient. You will be rewarded bountifully.”
Great words to live by.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Brandon, great post! As you know, I’m pro chiropractic w/ a passion for upper cervical, so what I write below is not to be considered a template for what we should do, but rather just some brainstorming ideas. In my opinion, care needs to be taken as to how UC gets the message out to the general public – though most of us agree a rotary break is gross manipulation, gross manipulators still have their place and are welcome at my dinner table. I say care needs to be taken b/c we all know too well that there are enough guns pointing at chiropractic – we don’t need to keep pointing ours, as Dr. Forest reminds us.
First, I think there would need to be consensus w/ a certification system in the Chiropractic community (schools, doctors, students, leadership organizations etc) that there are specializations within the profession – just as there are in allopath. If it doesn’t start at the top I can only see that the burden will be on the group of chiropractic specialist (Blair, NUCCA, AO, KCUCS etc etc) to educate the public themselves – uphill battle for sure, but UC is to important to shy away from this mission!
Whether it be via consensus w/in the community or on the shoulders of the individual group of chiropractors specializing, the general public needs to know there are differences and what those differences are/entail.
So in my head (one example) I see a TV commercial promoting general upper cervical chiropractic care and most importantly explaining what it is. The spot will also include a web site, which will educate the public as to what IS upper cervical chiropractic and what is NOT. This site (www.upcspine.com or something different) will also have links for the different techniques so a doctor of chiropractic can be found by a prospective patient.
If a doc wants to position themselves in the community as true upper cervical they need to be recognized by their individual technique organization/society they claim to. The doc needs to be in some sort of certification process (initiate / intermediate / advanced) so the public sees where they are w/ respect to their education level / experience etc. Clear definitions of each level of certification needs to be given for patient understanding.
Recently the CLEAR Institute revamped how they were certifying their docs. It’s now done in a manner so that a patient (w/ a certain condition – say cobb angle 30* and over) can get an experienced doc to help them out.
Back when I was under Pettibon (CLEAR) care a few years ago, I had to find a new CLEAR doctor – I was in a pinch. This doc was listed as an Advanced doc…this doc had been out of school for about 1.5 years and been working w/ the CLEAR institute for much less time than that. Very disappointed in my visit I did more research and found that the only thing advanced about this doc was the fact that they had all the necessary/required tools and gadgets on site. Too much of this was going on and so CLEAR cleaned it up. I mention the CLEAR Institute example b/c if the certification process is not done properly initially it can come back and bite everyone – worst of all, the patient!
To sum it up….
Educate the public: Today is the day!!!…the public needs to know about upper cervical chiropractic, why it’s different (science and testimonies) and how it can help. You know better than I, that consensus will not happen anytime soon within the profession as it relates to certain specializations – too many politics and too many old school traditional rotary break manipulators won’t let this happen…the burden is on NUCC, BLAIR, Palmer UC, AO, Grostic, KCUCS, Kale etc to get the message to the masses. It’s imperative that not only the message be given, but we need to very carefully and methodically lead the prospective patient to a chiropractor who really is who they say they are – this is why a solid certification / doctor status system is critical (some have it already) for every upper cervical technique.
I can’t stress enough that we need to find a way to lead the prospective patients to a legitimate UC doc. Nobody can determine how 1 patient experience can impact a family, town, city, country – the world! If a patient finds themselves at a gross manipulators office and they believe they are getting UC care then we failed ourselves as a UC community and the patient!
On a personal level let me make one more point about where we are w/ respect to educating the public. I have a couple of family members that would still be w/ their gross manipulators if I had not shared w/ them just some basic science (thanks Dr. Kirk Eriksen “Upper Cervical Subluxation Complex” and Greg Buchanan w/ http://www.upcspine.com), shared w/ them solid and true chiropractic philosophy and most very importantly my own testimony. Once these family members paid the specific UC doctor a visit, were consulted, educated and adjusted they knew what they were missing – one adjustment gave more to them than all the years of traditional care they were receiving previously. If I told them today to stop going to their UC doc and that all UC was bad, they wouldn’t listen – they wouldn’t listen because they are seeing and feeling their bodies heal and work properly now – unlike before! What’s really cool is that they are now working on other family members sharing their health testimony and some science behind it – it won’t be long before all my extended family is under UC care – hopefully before I graduate from Palmer.
Scott M. Livingston
Thank you, Brandon for reminding me that it is the quality of care I give to each patient that I am with at the moment that is the gem of being a healthcare provider, not the number of patients I see nor the size of my savings account.
Oh, and good on ya for calling out the posers!
Brandon, thanks for writing about this seldom-addressed topic… It’s unfortunate how many chiropractors misrepresent themselves as exclusive Upper Cervical doctors in a feeble attempt to stand out.
Today’s blog post reminded me of an old quote I heard many years ago:
“There are those who do the Work, and those who take the credit. In the first group, there’s far less competition.”
I love that quote Adam! Keep up the great work! Thanks for bringing the topic up Brandon!
Scott: Geez! I’m going to use your comment and turn into a guest blog post tomorrow! LOL! Great points though.
Dr. Kale: Thanks for stopping by. That’s my point. I thought that guy was a NUCCA doc and I was excited to see one on Twitter. Obviously I was wrong.
Joshua: Thanks!
Dr. Tanase: I love that quote. It is so true.
Travis: I’m glad you liked it!
The more popular upper cervical becomes,
the more the public will be interested,
the more results we’ll get,
the more patients will validate it,
the more we’ll be seen as something to consider,
the more people will be saying they can do the same thing.
It’s a defense mechanism, and it just means that we need to work harder to differentiate ourselves.
Only you can promote how you’re not a commodity.
Very bold of you to call that guy out Brandon.
Differentiate and educate. Public perception of general chiropractic cannot be changed. It’s beyond that.
UC docs must unify and rebrand themselves!
Docs need to be highly skilled at their technique and get people well. The public is already skeptical about you – You can market and educate all day long – if the doc does not get results – you’re lumped back in there with the other guys.
Great post Brandon!
I always point people I meet outside of my area to the NUCCA website if they are looking for NUCCA care. NUCCA takes great care to ensure that the doctors listed through their “locate-a-doctor” feature practice NUCCA primarily. Are there doctors out there who are practicing NUCCA yet not on the list – yes – but I can know for sure that there are no doctors on the list who are not practicing NUCCA.
I know some of the other techniques have a similar system for locating their practitioners, and I think that if all of the main Upper Cervical Techniques took the same care to ensure their lists were of verified upper cervical practitioners, then creating a central point where there could be a system that queries all the lists for a given area would be a fairly simple step. Much like the discount flight websites collect info from the airline sites to find the best deal.
Anyway – my 2 cents on the matter.
So, I really do wonder what we are? 1.? Are we chiropractors trained in upper cervical who only do upper cervical and refer to other full spine docs when we think it is needed? 2.) Are we upper cervical chiropractors who think full spine should never be done 3.) Are we upper cervical chiropractors who also do full spine when needed? 4.) Are we upper cervical chiropractos who do full spine, decompression, flexion-distraction, activator, push vitimins and sell products too. If we are not 1 or 2 are we really any different? If we are number 3 why would Gonstead, Pettibon, Clear, Activator, Thompson etc be excluded? Do you see my point. As a whole we are not in the groups that I labled as 1 and 2, are we?
Maybe we need to define what we do and make a regulatory board to oversee the affairs. What do you all think?
BY the way, nice blog.