August 2006

RCS earns Canadian IRB approval

Research & Clinical Science (RCS), the private sector research company engaged in a global data‑collection project to determine the effect of subluxations, and chiropractic adjustments, on human health, has received full approval by a Canadian Institutional Review Board (IRB, also known in Canada as a Research Ethics Board). The approval clears the way for doctors of chiropractic throughout Canada to participate in the project.

The IRB approval is required for any scientific research study involving human subjects and involves a complete scrutiny of all aspects of the research protocols and ethical standards. The RCS program had previously won approval from an IRB in the US.

In addition to the program itself, all field doctors who join RCS must be approved by an IRB and receive extensive training in order to qualify as RCS Authorized Clinical Investigators. Such stringent prerequisites were deemed essential in order to maintain the highest caliber of professionalism among all RCS doctors.

The Canadian IRB that reviewed and approved the RCS research protocol is made up of scientists and medical researchers, many of whom hold high‑level positions in Canadian hospitals and colleges. In addition, a PhD ethicist serves on the panel.

As part of an IRB review, all forms and documents associated with the RCS program ‑‑ including human subjects consent forms, volunteer recruitment ads, etc. ‑‑ were carefully examined and approved for both adults and children. The IRB and RCS permits its participating doctors to use only the approved forms it provides.

"This approval is extremely important to us," stated RCS President Robert Blanks, PhD, noted for his landmark chiropractic study on chiropractic's impact on self‑reported wellness and quality of life. "RCS intends to compile structured clinical data sets on hundreds of thousands of people in all parts of the world, analyze and publish these results in peer‑reviewed journals in order to support the evidence‑based scientific rationale behind chiropractic care. produce incontrovertible evidence about the effect of chiropractic care."

Canadian doctors, who had been placed on a waiting list pending the approval, may now participate fully in the RCS program, Dr. Blanks added.

The RCS program has come under fire from some critics, many of whom appear to want to suppress clinical research on subluxation corrective care.

"There are many people who feel threatened by the possibility of demonstrating, through carefully planned and executed research protocols, that subluxations have a detrimental effect on health and that drug‑free chiropractic care to detect and correct those subluxations may be a major key to health and wellness," Blanks said. "Sadly, some of these people are actually in the chiropractic profession itself. Many of these individuals don't even like using the word 'subluxation,' let alone conducting a global clinical study on them."

Criticism has also been leveled at RCS because it charges doctors a fee to participate in the program, although private funding is common in medical research.

"We don't have drug companies or the government giving us millions of dollars to produce this type of study," explained RCS Vice President Matthew McCoy, DC, editor of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research. "For more than a century, we've waited in vain for funding. If we want true chiropractic research, we have to pay for it ourselves. It's ironic that none of the doctors who join have complained about the fee. Only those who don't want doctors to join seem to have a problem with the concept."