June 2003

CCP meets, discusses guidelines and research

The Council on Chiropractic Practice (CCP) held its annual business meeting on May 2, 2003, in Washington, D.C., and passed several procedural amendments, including the establishment of a new Credentials Committee, before moving on to a discussion of the updating of the CCP's "Clinical Guideline # 1: Vertebral Subluxation in Chiropractic Practice."

The CCP document is the only chiropractic guidelines to be included in National Guideline Clearinghouse, a comprehensive electronic database administered by the Agency for Policy and Health Care Research (AHCPR) which allows access to accepted guidelines from various health care disciplines. Although the Mercy guidelines had previously been accepted for inclusion in the NGC, it was later withdrawn for failure to meet NGC standards.

The CCP is working to update and revise the document by this summer and has solicited input from chiropractic experts, researchers, technique developers and field doctors throughout the profession.

Also discussed at the CCP meeting was the issue of a campaign to secure funding for subluxation‑based research. According to CCP board member, Robert Blanks, Ph.D., of Florida Atlantic University, the research will be health and wellness based; not disease based.

Also attending the meeting were CCP Board members Matt McCoy, D.C., editor of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research; Jay Holder, D.C., developer of the Torque Release technique and President/Co‑Founder of the American College of Addictionology and Compulsive Disorders; and Veronica Gutierrez, D.C., member of the World Chiropractic Alliance Board of Directors and the only chiropractor to serve on the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

The meeting, which was open to the profession, was also attended by several guests.

In July 1995, the CCP was established with the mission of "developing evidence‑based guidelines, conducting research and performing other functions that will enhance the practice of chiropractic for the benefit of the consumer. An apolitical, non‑profit organization, the CCP is not affiliated with the any international, national or state association. Instead, is was founded as a grass roots group to produce practice guidelines which serve the needs of the consumer, and are consistent with "real world" chiropractic practice.

One of its first actions was to create a multidisciplinary panel, supported by staff, and led by a project coordinator and methodologist, who served as a consultant. The panel analyzed available scientific evidence revolving around a model which depicts the safest and most efficacious delivery of chiropractic care to the consumer. From these efforts, the CCP guidelines were developed to protect the right of any patient ‑‑ including children and asymptomatic patients ‑‑ to obtain subluxation‑based chiropractic.

Evidence based guidelines were also needed to protect the ability of D.C.s to use analytical and diagnostic procedures necessary to characterize the vertebral subluxation and its effects. Parameters for corrective procedures were based upon objective evidence of subluxation correction, not merely temporary symptomatic relief.

Since its debut, the CCP Guidelines have won widespread support and endorsement and have been successfully used to validate subluxation correction as the purpose of chiropractic, and to counter the medically oriented recommendations of the Mercy guidelines.

Doctors wishing to learn more about the CCP, or to download a copy of the CCP Guidelines, can visit the CCP website at www.ccp‑guidelines.org.