The Consortium began in 1986 when six West Coast chiropractic colleges formed the Pacific Consortium for Chiropractic Research, agreeing to pursue chiropractic research with their combined financial and academic resources. The impetus for founding the Consortium was a 1985 position paper by Bernard Coyle, PhD, Alan Adams, MS, DC, and Rober Tolar, PhD. Joining the colleges were the California Chiropractic Foundation (educational affiliate of the California Chiropractic Association), and the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research. The CCF and the FCER became the "sustaining members" of the Consortium: To date, the CCF has donated over $500,000; the FCER over $1 million.
By 1989, the Consortium was no longer just a West Coast college group, and the designation "Pacific" was dropped to reflect its broadening scope. Soon, 13 chiropractic colleges had joined the CCR as institutional members, and further support was seen from other chiropractic organizations (associate members).
The addition of Parker College of Chiropractic, and Texas College of Chiropractic, boosts the CCR's institutional membership to 15 (see listing at end of article). Each college pays annual dues of $3,000 plus $1.50 per each full-time attending student. With the addition of the Texas Back Institute Research Foundation, the CCR now has 13 associate members, each contributing $1,000 annually.
Additional funding is generated by grants from outside agencies: the first came from the National Institute for Chiropractic Research. But the largest single donation to the Consortium ($1.6 million over five years) came last year when 11 of the 17 chiropractic colleges, who each received equal shares from the Wilk settlement, granted their colleges' shares to the CCR to study "areas other than low back pain ... with special emphasis on somatovisceral relationships" (see "AMA Dollars Will Fund Chiro Research" in the Feb. 12, 1993 issue).
Parker College of Chiropractic
The research program at Parker is directed by Alan Solinger, PhD, (physics, University of Michigan). He has spent most of his career at the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT in Cambridge. He is considered a specialist in theoretical physics (conceptualizing of research data). His interests include bioenergy, electrobiomagnetics, natural healing techniques, and practical applications for health care.
Parker College has invested over $700,000 setting up a shielded and grounded booth to study bioenergy and the body's electrical fields, especially as they relate to nerve interference and its correction. Dr. Solinger will further this research and help initiate faculty research in other areas.
"It is important for the survival of chiropractic as a profession in the 21st. century that research become part of its very life blood," said Dr. Solinger.
Texas Chiropractic College
"The medical community has issued a challenge to the chiropractic community," says Susan Grigsby,PhD, director of research at Texas Chiropractic College. She sees chiropractic's challenge as "... rigorous scientific research into the nature of pathologies which are best treated by chiropractic..." She believes the Consortium will be instrumental in providing the leadership and intellectual framework for these investigations.
Dr. Grigsby notes that TCC has initiated a three-step approach for original research: 1) educating faculty on current areas of research and methodology; 2) collaborating on projects with the Texas Medical Center; and 3) supporting faculty in the design of research projects and the preparation/submission of research proposals. This three-pronged plan has already begun with a research seminar series given by members of the Texas Medical Center and discussions between the chiropractic and medical faculty; participating in the weekly meeting of the pain group at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; and the TCC faculty attending a grantsmanship course, given by the University of Texas Medical School, to improve the quality of chiropractic research proposals.
Texas Back Institute Research Foundation
In our October 22, 1993 issue, we announced the appointment of John Triano, DC, MA, to the prestigious Texas Back Institute (TBI) as staff chiropractic physician. TBI is the largest freestanding spine specialty clinic in the U.S., where 90 percent of its patients recover from back problems without surgery. The research arm of the TBI, the Texas Back Institute Research Foundation (Foundation), has become an associate member of the Consortium. Dr. Triano, former professor and research director of the Joint Ergonomics and Research Laboratory at National College of Chiropractic, is a clinical scientist with the Foundation.
Dr. Triano plans to conduct research on persistent extremity pain; the biomechanical meaning of manual diagnostic procedures; effects of manipulation on discogenic pain; and a controlled clinical trial on neck disorders contrasting chiropractic are, conservative medicine, and surgery.
The Foundation recently presented a seminar on chiropractic strategies in managed care and health care reform attended by 70 DC from the Dallas area. Paul Shekelle, MD, MPH, principal investigator of the RAND studies on The Appropriateness of Spinal Manipulation for Low-Back Pain, spoke on "The Role of Practice Outcome Information in Managed Care Decision Making." Dr. Triano presented "Clinical Outcomes for Chiropractic Services to Spine Patients."
The TBI and the Foundation have systematically investigated the science and art of chiropractic. Over the past six years, a number of multidisciplinary conferences have been held. The Foundation has joined the Consortium as a further commitment to the nonpartisan study of spine related disease.
Consortium for Chiropractic Research
President: William Meeker, DC, MPH
VP: Gary Sanders, PhD
Treasurer: Joanne Nyiendo, PhD
Secretary: Grace Jacobs, DA
Past President: Reed Phillips, DC, PhD
Asst. Executive Dir: Seva Craven
Sustaining Members:
California Chiropractic Foundation Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research
Institutional Members:
Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College
Sil Mior, DC, FCCS(C)
Cleveland Chiropractic College, Kansas City
C. Ray Ratliff, PhD
Cleveland Chiropractic College, Los Angeles
Grace Jacobs, DA
Life Chiropractic College West
Charles Lantz, DC, PhD
Logan College of Chiropractic
Gary Sanders, PhD
Los Angeles College of Chiropractic
Alan Adams, DC
National College of Chiropractic
Patricia Brennan
New York Chiropractic College
Wesley Canfield, MD
Northwestern College of Chiropractic
William Jose, PhD
Palmer College of Chiropractic
Iftikhar Bhatti, PhD
Palmer College of Chiropractic, West
William Meeker, DC, MPH
Parker College of Chiropractic
Alan Solinger, PhD
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Phillip Ebrall, B.App.Sc. (chiropractic)
Texas College of Chiropractic
Susan Grigsby, PhD
Western States Chiropractic College
Joanne Nyiendo, PhD
Associate Members
-American Chiropractic Association
-ACA Council on Sports Injuries and Physical Fitness
-Gonstead Clinical Studies Society
-International Chiropractors Association
-International College of Applied Kinesiology
-Maryland Chiropractic Association
-Motion Palpation Institute
-National Chiropractic Mutual Insurance Company
-National Institute of Chiropractic Research
-New York State Chiropractic Association
-OUM & Associates, Inc.
-Sacro Occipital Research Society International, Inc.
-Texas Back Institute Research Foundation
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