The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) established a committee on APHA in February 1987 as a liaison between the APHA and the ACA. This ACA committee monitors APHA activities, participates in APHA politics, and is active during the APHA's annual fall meeting. Members of the ACA committee on APHA are DCs John Pammer Jr., who has served as committee chairman since 1995; Rand Baird; Karen Konarski-Hart; and Marc Malon. Dr. Kurt Hegetschweiler serves as the ACA Board of Governors' liaison for this committee.
The International Chiropractic Association (ICA) became involved with APHA in 1981 and, like ACA, was one of the premier chiropractic agency members. Dr. Rand Baird represents ICA at APHA functions.
Within the APHA is the Chiropractic Health Care Section. The 1998 officers for that section are:
| Chair: | Craig Nelson, DC |
| Past-Chair: | Rand Baird, DC, MPH |
| Chair-elect: | Mitchell Haas, DC, MA |
| Secretary: | Cheryl Hawk, DC, PhD |
| Program Chair: | Marla Hondras, DC, MPH |
| Membership Chair: | Lisa Killinger, DC |
| Awards Chair: | Rand Baird, DC, MPH |
| Nominating Chair: | Michael Loader, DC |
| Newsletter Editor: | Fred Colley, Phd, MPH |
| Publicity Chair: | To be determined |
| Section Council: | Fred Colley, Phd, MPH Ellen Bokina, DC, MPH Maria Hondras, DC, MPH John Hyland, DC, DACBR Joanne Nyiendo, Phd Michael Perillo, DC, MPH |
| Governing Council: | William Meeker, DC, MPH Mitchell Haas, DC, MA |
| Action Board Representative: | Christine Hegetschweiler Goertz, DC |
Drs. Nelson, Baird and Haas will serve on the APHA intersectional council as chair, past-chair and chair-elect, respectively, of the Chiropractic Health Care (CHC) section at the 1998 annual meeting.
At the November 1997 annual meeting, the CHC section presented its section awards for distinguished service and accomplishments. Both early pioneer efforts and ongoing achievements within APHA were recognized. The awards were presented by Dr. Rand Baird to Drs. Mitchell Haas, William Meeker, and Robert Mootz.
Distinguished Service Award winners:
Mitchell Haas, DC, MA
William Meeker, DC, MPH
Robert Mootz, DC
Dr. Baird was also presented a special certificate of recognition by APHA executive director Dr. Mohammad Akhter for membership recruitment and service over the years.
Section Activities
Membership in the CHC section rose slightly in 1997, averaging over 400 members. Chiropractic's growth rate was the best of any section, but of the 25 APHA sections, our membership only represents 1.31 percent of the total. We rank 19th in size among sections. Our renewal and retention rate is lower than most sections, and we still have a disproportionate higher percentage of student members (26.54 percent).
The 1998 annual APHA meeting will be held in Washington, D.C. from November 15-19. The theme for this 126th annual meeting will be public health and managed care.
The governing council of APHA has adopted 27 new official public policy statements and position papers; these were published in full in the March 1998 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Four doctors of chiropractic held governing council seats in 1997 and participated fully in APHAs policy process.
The president of the APHA Governing Council for 1998 is Quentin Young, MD, who has been very receptive to chiropractic participation in APHA. Dr. Young is chairman of the Health and Medicine Policy Research Group in Chicago and a clinical professor of preventive medicine at the University of Illinois School of Medicine. He and Rand Baird, DC, MPH, have known each other for 26 years, having worked together from 1971-74 at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.
APHA has a three-year strategic plan (1997-2000) with four stated goals:
- advance public health policy;
- stimulate public support for public health;
- improve public health practice; and
- strengthen and support the APHA.
There appears to be considerable enthusiasm and support for building coalitions and undertaking joint endeavors among the Chiropractic Health Care section, the podiatric health section, the vision care section, the radiological health section, and the alternative and complementary health practices special-interest group.
During 1997, no additional chiropractic organizations applied for agency membership in the APHA. Current membership includes:
- American Chiropractic Association
- International Chiropractors' Association
- Cleveland Chiropractic College of LA
- Western States Chiropractic College
- New York Chiropractic College
- Palmer College of Chiropractic
- National College of Chiropractic
- Life College
- Los Angeles College of Chiropractic
Chiropractic editors, authors, and researchers are encouraged to submit a chiropractic or multidisciplinary paper for publication in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH). Other than letters to the editor and proposed resolutions, there has never been a paper contributed by a DC author in AJPH (although there have been several written about chiropractic by non-DCs, including some of the RAND studies). It is important that this obvious deficiency in chiropractic's full participation in APHA be remedied. One solution is for chiropractic editors to identify suitable manuscripts from among their submissions, and have the author(s) submit them first to AJPH; after publication in AJPH, it could be reprinted in the chiropractic literature. The chiropractic research community, which clarified its research agenda in 1996, is the most likely group to implement this.
Editor's note: The information present her was excerpted from the ACA Committee on APHA report by John Pammer, DC, DACBR (chairman), and Rand Baird, DC, MPH (member).
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