In 2001, Dr. Niles became the coordinator of clinical academics at Palmer Chiropractic College in Davenport, Iowa; one year later, she was named dean of academic affairs for the start-up Palmer College of Chiropractic, Florida. Currently, she is also interim senior campus administrator of PCCF. Dr. Niles' myriad other professional accomplishments include two terms as president of the American Black Chiropractic Association, and service as a member of the test-writing committee of the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners.
Two days before honoring Dr. Niles, Life West named Tina Carrari its 2004 Student of the Year at the college's annual SPA (science, philosophy, and art) Day Conference. She has been involved in a multitude of activities and organizations on campus, and has made the dean's list in each of her 11 quarters of study. She is a member of Life West's World Congress of Chiropractic Students and currently serves as a student representative to three college committees: curriculum development, research, and library.
DC Appointed to NESA-Harvard Study on Acupuncture
Harvard Medical School's Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and the New England School of Acupuncture were recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate women's health initiatives. A main objective of the investigation is to develop the Oriental Medicine Assessment Instrument (OMSAI), which will reflect the complexity of Traditional Chinese Medicine, but measure Western standards of clinical performance.
Dynamic Chiropractic columnist J. Michael Menke, DC, a member of the University of Arizona's Evaluation Group for the Analysis of Data (EGAD), will serve as research methodologist, clinical protocol consultant and data analyst on the OMSAI project.
Dr. Menke is on the teaching faculty of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona and has been involved in research and integrative postgraduate training at the University of California, San Francisco Osher Center for Integrative Medicine; Stanford University; and Johns Hopkins University. He is also on the postgraduate faculties of National University of Health Sciences and the Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research.
"Measurement is a challenge for all non-medical systems of healing," said Dr. Menke. "As in chiropractic, deeper or less apparent causes may be at work, but we still need to measure levels of agreement between practitioners on a given diagnosis, to see if providers can systematically find disease, treat it, and have reliable, valid, and predictable outcomes."
APHA Supports Plan to Reverse Rise in Childhood Obesity
The American Public Health Association (APHA) recently announced its support of an Institute of Medicine (IOM) plan to reverse the number of obese children by promoting new nutritional guidelines and encouraging physical activities.
"Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions, threatening the health of our children whose well-being is being undermined by unhealthy diets and lack of exercise," said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, executive director of APHA. "As a result, children are at high risk for developing health problems, such as diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure, that are already costing our nation billions of dollars in health care expenses. We cannot afford not to address this escalating issue."
The IOM recommends that the following steps be taken to help prevent obesity in our youth:
- Schools should implement nutritional standards for all foods and beverages served on school grounds, including those from vending machines.
- Students should engage in at least 30 minutes of physical activity each day.
- Food, beverage, and entertainment industries should develop and implement guidelines for advertising and marketing directed at children.
- Restaurants should continue expanding their offerings of healthy foods and beverages and should provide calorie content and other nutrition information.
- Parents should keep fruits and vegetables in the home to encourage their children to choose them as snacks.
- Communities should take steps to encourage bicycling and walking, and improve access to parks and playgrounds.
Children who are overweight are likely to become overweight as adults, leaving them more susceptible to numerous health problems. It is estimated that among children born in the United States in the year 2000, the lifetime risk of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes is approximately 30 percent for boys and 40 percent for girls (assuming obesity rates level off).
University of Arizona Honors Dr. Keating's Contributions to Chiropractic
On Oct. 28, the Department of Psychology and the Evaluation Group for the Analysis of Data (EGAD), at the University of Arizona, sponsored a colloquium honoring the contributions of Joseph C. Keating Jr., PhD, to science and chiropractic. The presentation honoring Dr. Keating was titled, "Chiropractic: Science and Antiscience and Pseudoscience, Side by Side," the title of an article by Dr. Keating that appeared in The Skeptical Inquirer in 1997.
The colloquium also provided an opportunity to discuss and review the current climate of chiropractic scientific research bearing on the validity and clinical meaningfulness of "subluxation syndrome." Dr. Keating answered questions from the audience, comprised largely of faculty and graduate students from EGAD and the psychology department, animal behaviorists, research methodologists, behavioral geneticists, and chiropractors.
In addition to writing eight books, Dr. Keating has authored hundreds of professional papers. He is a past president of the Association for the History of Chiropractic (AHC) and is now a member of the board of directors of the AHC and the board of directors of the National Institute of Chiropractic Research. Dr. Keating is also a longtime contributor to DC, authoring the "History of Chiropractic" column.
NUHS Chapter Gets SACA's Highest Honor
At the American Chiropractic Association's House of Delegates Meeting in September, the National University of Health Sciences' Student ACA (SACA) chapter was chosen "Chapter of the Year" for 2004. This is the first time the chapter has been selected to receive the award. Among its contributions this year, the NUHS chapter raised money to help Sister Brigitte Yeno, DC, (an NUHS alumna) and her chiropractic clinic in the Congo. The chapter also participated in "Adopt-a-Platoon" to send supplies to a military unit in Iraq.
Also at the House of Delegates meeting, Derek Dyer, a 7th trimester student at NUHS, was unanimously elected as the new national chairman of SACA, marking the first time a student from NUHS has been selected as national chair.
Derek, who is the former president of the NUHS chapter of SACA, looks forward to achieving his initial goals: "We want to work toward building unity among the profession at the student level. We realize that many of the seasoned doctors are already firm in their different opinions on what unity is. We might have better success if we begin forging unity at the student level."
Massachusetts Chiropractor of the Year Announced
Dr. Lynn LeBel of Springfield, Mass., was recently named chiropractor of the year by the Massachusetts Chiropractic Society. As the association's vice president of public information and education, Dr. LeBel supported a two-year project called MassChiro, designed to redefine the image of chiropractic in Massachusetts. MassChiro includes media and marketing tools as well as a consumer-driven Web site, www.MassChiro.org, which was launched on May 1, 2004.
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