Chiropractic 2025:

Chiropractic 2025: Divergent Futures
share core courses and clinical internships with other health profession students at SCUHS, before separating into
specialties. National University of Health Sciences also offers joint courses and clinical training opportunities.
Furthermore, students have historically been generally ill-prepared for running their own practices. However, DC
colleges are increasingly providing students training in all aspects of chiropractic practice, from the clinical to the
back office. SCUHS, for example, is planning to begin business simulations in spring 2013.
Although the chiropractic community is debating prescription rights, the core DC education may not change. Some
schools, particularly the broad-scope colleges, would be open to expanding their offerings to include pharmacology
and related subjects. These schools are also likely to offer the relevant training for practicing chiropractors to get
certified as eligible to use the prescribing rights.
In any case, shared educational pathways should increase the impact of DC programs on chiropractors’ integration
into the health care system as a whole. In this context, interviewees mentioned that the establishment of one or more
public chiropractic schools could be a major breakthrough in promoting successful integration of chiropractors into
the health care system. This integration has become the norm for the chiropractic profession in other countries.
In many countries (e.g., Canada and Denmark), it includes public higher education for chiropractors. Some
interviewees felt that one DC program successfully begun at a public university would lead to others. However,
other interviewees thought that the establishment of a DC program at a public university was not likely to occur by
2025.
Research Training
There has been a focus on training chiropractors to do research, urging them to get PhDs or other graduate degrees.
The number of DC-PhDs who can do research has grown significantly. One interviewee estimated that there are
currently 100 DC-PhDs. However, as some interviewees noted, DC graduates with high student loan debt do not
necessarily have the option of going into research. Additionally, as DCs become more focused on research, they
may leave chiropractic colleges to do research on chiropractic at other universities or institutions. For example,
James Whedon, DC, MS, is at the Center for Health Policy Research at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy
and Clinical Practice where he has conducted research on chiropractic use in Medicare using the Center’s access to
Medicare claims data.
Given their history as private chiropractic colleges, none of the chiropractic schools would be considered a major
research university. However, research—particularly on the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of chiropractic care—is
growing at most schools. Four schools (Palmer College of Chiropractic, National University of Health Sciences,
Northwestern Health Sciences University, and University of Western States) have been developing their research
capacity and conducting research with federal funding. Palmer College, for example, used funding from the Health
Resources and Services Administration to train its faculty in research methods, and the faculty members have in turn
trained their students. In addition, Palmer College began to offer additional financial incentives (e.g., “publication
bounties”) for research and publications. This Palmer College effort has successfully led to a significant increase
in publications and research at the institution. Chiropractic colleges may also develop a registry of chiropractic
college clinics and chiropractors to gather data on care. Similarly, Texas Chiropractic College, Logan College of
Chiropractic, and Parker University College of Chiropractic all partnered to form a new collaborative research
program in 2011, the Integrative Chiropractic Outcomes Network (ICON), and called for other chiropractic
institutions and chiropractors to join. 32 Additionally, the Lincoln Chair’s research program at the University of South
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