The FCER has planned and presented the ICSM the past five years. This year's ICSM was hosted by L'Ordre des Chiropracticiens du Quebec (OCQ).
The participants' hopes for the conference and for the profession were articulated by Normand Danis, DC, president of the OCQ: "This is to prove that research in chiropractic has no frontier."
There was praise for the strides chiropractic has made by establishing its own guidelines, both in the U.S. and Canada. Keynote speaker David Chapman-Smith, Esq., secretary-general for the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC) and legal counsel at both the 1992 U.S. Mercy Center Conference and the recent Canadian Glenerin Conference (see the May 7, 1993 "DC"), spoke eloquently of the challenges and promises of practice guidelines.
"If your profession, and the profession that I am happy to work for, responds well to challenges such as this -- the need to develop mature, proper practice guidelines -- these challenges of the '90s will in fact advance your profession very quickly rather than being a burden or a problem," he said. "They [practice guidelines] really are a road to chiropractic showing its maturity and strength and garnering the position in the health care system that it should have."
Anthony Rosner, PhD, FCER's director of research, noted that this is a time not only of efforts to revise the U.S. health care system for the first time in nearly 20 years, but also a period of expanding chiropractic research:
"For the first time, significant clinical trials addressed to various and highly prevalent somatovisceral conditions are underway," said Dr. Rosner. He pointed to a number of new directions:
- new physiological indices of patient outcome are being introduced and developed;
- consensus terminologies and specific techniques of chiropractic intervention are being systematically introduced into research manuscripts;
- neurological experimental support for decades-old theories of spinal dysfunction is being offered;
- a prospective study to determine the efficacy of maintenance and preventative care has been launched for the first time on a major scale in the Western Hemisphere.
The findings to all these experimental approaches were presented at the ICSM in less than 48 hours.
Every year at the ICSM, FCER names its chiropractor of the year as part of its ongoing mission to recognize and honor the emerging leaders of the scientific community devoted to chiropractic research. This year's recipient was Howard Vernon, DC, FCCS(C), associate dean and director for the Center for the Study of Spinal Health at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC). The Foundation recognized the fact that Dr. Vernon's published works and research will have a long-lasting, positive effect on the profession.
The two-day conference ended with a dramatic flourish: a debate and public discussion on the interrelations and conflicts of chiropractic research, politics, and public relations.
Deb Callahan, FCER's director of education spoke to the need for a "strong relationship between research and clinical practice," and extended the FCER's gratitude to L'Ordre des Chiropracticiens du Quebec for helping make the conference possible.
Editor's note: The Proceedings of the 1993 International Conference on Spinal Manipulation may be purchased for $35. For more information, please contact FCER/ICSM, 1701 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington, VA. You may call 1-800-637-6244 or (713) 276-7445.
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