August 2009

DCs need to examine their attachments

A letter to the profession by Dr. Richard Barwell, World Chiropractic Alliance President

One thing I can absolutely guarantee is that there's never a dull moment within the chiropractic profession! It seems that if you put two chiropractors in a room, you'll have a disagreement. Is it because we tend to think outside the typical concepts or that our profession appeals to rugged individualists? Either way, we seem to have more challenges than we see in dentistry or medicine, especially when the going gets tough.

The latest challenge, as you probably know by now, deals with the allegations of false advertising claims by a major player in the profession. These are extremely serious charges and must be addressed and settled one way or another.

The situation affects more than the companies involved. More important than that is the impact it could have on individual chiropractors using the marketing claims in their offices.

If the allegations are true, then thousands of DCs could be in jeopardy and face severe fines or even jail time. Chiropractors have already been threatened with jail and fined in the case regarding similar charges for a different chiropractic supply company, so the threats are very real.

For the last two decades, the mission of the World Chiropractic Alliance has been to be the "watchdog" of the profession. It serves as the accountability division in chiropractic. Unfortunately, the majority of people (and companies) don't like being held accountable for their actions. It's a dirty job but someone needs to do it.

We have many examples of chiropractic individualists pushing the marketing envelope past all reason. WCA founder and current CEO Terry A. Rondberg, DC, takes his role of "accountability person" seriously. As an investigative reporter and a major malpractice insurer for the profession, he has a responsibility to report legal problems of this magnitude to the profession.

Dr. Rondberg and The Chiropractic Journal didn't launch the recent action. Neither did I nor the World Chiropractic Alliance. In fact, I learned about it the same way the majority of the profession did, by reading about it in The Chiropractic Journal.

Following the release of this information, a letter went out to the profession from the major individual involved, suggesting that I was involved in the action even though he had no proof and never contacted me to learn the truth. To be accused by innuendo of being involved simply because I market a chiropractic instrument is irresponsible and damaging.

Now that it has been made public that investigations are under way, my position will be to let the authorities handle the situation and hope the results do no damage to chiropractors in the trenches.

I accepted the position of president of the World Chiropractic Alliance with the clear understanding that my duty was to continue to develop the concepts of Neurologically Based Chiropractic (NBC) with the full support of the board of directors. I was not and am not involved in the investigative arm or the content of The Chiropractic Journal.

While my company does market instrumentation, I pay for the ads that appear in the Journal. NeuroInfiniti is owned by Chiropractic Equity Offices Inc. (CEO), and my wife Susan and I are the only shareholders. CEO has an exclusive contract with Big Secret Marketing owned by David and DeDe VanRiper to market the product. Dr. Rondberg holds no shares in either company.

As a profession that has been under attack for the last 114 years, we have a high level of emotional attachment to all things chiropractic, including the vertebral subluxation and various personalities. Loyalty is a beautiful thing but we must be careful that it doesn't blind us to the truth or new understandings.

Knowledge represents growth and growth demands change! Loyalty needs to start within each of us. It must be a loyalty or commitment to learn and discover knowledge that can provide a new insight of greater value to you, the patient, or the profession, even though it might mean letting go of some idea or relationship that has been of value in the past.

The development of NBC provides this new knowledge and all I ask is that you visit the information center (www.neurologicallybasedchiropractic.com) to discover for yourself the potential it has for you, your patients and most importantly the profession!

(Dr. Richard Barwell is the founder and president of the Chiropractic Equity Offices, Inc. program, and has more than 30 years of experience in chiropractic practice. After graduating with honors from Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in 1964, he started a family Wellness Practice in British Columbia. He has since established numerous successful practices, won several awards and guest lectured at various chiropractic institutions. Before establishing CEO, Inc. Dr. Barwell was the director of seminars and programs at Quest and executive director of the Chiropractic Leadership Alliance.)