Our Hybrid Model of Healthcare

I am a chiropractor, and I own my own clinic.

I am a strength coach, and I own my own gym.

I am a business owner, and I recognize the limits of each of those practices. And, in all three of those capacities, I am a witness to the changing landscape in healthcare, which is being reshaped due to changes in law, repayments and consumer desires.

But out of this chaos I think I’ve come up with a hybrid healthcare idea that makes perfect sense for me and my clients, and I think it can make sense for you, too.

Custom Foot Orthoses

Chiropractic doctors see a variety of patients and complaints in daily practice and we offer highly beneficial treatment and care to the patients who seek our services. The majority of that care is focused on the spine, although we encounter a good deal of extremity complaints as well. The foot and ankle are an often overlooked etiology of many common complaints and training in this area and especially custom foot orthoses, is entirely lacking.

Corporate Spotlight: David Wedemeyer and Solelutions Orthotic Lab

Corporate Spotlight: David Wedemeyer and Solelutions Orthotic Lab

We are extremely excited about this post because it's our first ever Corporate Spotlight!

Dr. David Wedemeyer of Wedemeyer Chiropractic and Orthotics AND Solelutions Orthotic Lab has become the first corporate sponsor of the Forward Thinking Chiropractic Alliance.  Dr. Wedemeyer is located in Costa Mesa, California and is a Cleveland Chiropractic College - Los Angeles graduate.  To learn more about his view, experience, and sponsorship, keep reading!

Ego - A Rant

We have members who have been “in the field” for decades.  We have researchers who have worked on the newest and best methods known to chiropractic practice.  We have business owners who operate million dollar clinics.  We have students who have learned the best methods, as refined over years of practice.  We have new doctors who are learning new methods as you read this.

Member Spotlight: Ailsa Patterson

In March 2000 Ailsa Patterson B.Sc M.Chiro, became the owner and principal Chiropractor at City Centre Chiropractic, in Brisbane. Her qualifications include 1996 Bachelor of Science from The University of Queensland and a 1998 Master of Chiropractic from Macquarie University in Sydney. She has previously worked in clinics in Perth and South East Queensland, before settling in Brisbane City. 

The Science and Application of Human Anatomy Series

Welcome to the first post of the series related to clinical anatomy.  Throughout this series we will be reviewing anatomical structures as well as their clinical significance.  Since this is the first of the series, I wanted to provide a foundation for the future posts that will focus on more specific regions of the human body.  Generally, this series will concentrate on regional anatomy as opposed to systemic anatomy which will allow us to integrate biomechanics and physiology into the anatomy being presented.

Member Spotlight: Gitte Tønner

 

Gitte Tønner is a 2004 University of Southern Denmark graduate who has been keeping herself busy since entering the profession. Within two months of graduation, Gitte was moved and starting practice in the Netherlands. 

Gitte believes in the use of any modality she can rationally justify to get her patients better in the short term and healthier in the long run. She endeavors to run an ethical practice. To her, this means informing people in what she does, meaning working with their GPs or specialist when deemed necessary and that if her patients wish to work towards longer term results, she'll then talk posture, exercise, diet and supplementation.


Member Spotlight: Joshua Lederman DC, MS, ART, NRCME

Dr. Joshua Lederman is a Board Certified Chiropractic Physician in Illinois, has a Masters of Science in Sports Science and Rehabilitation degree, is Full Body Certified in Active Release Techniques (ART®), is an IronMan® Proud Partner, is a National Registry Certified Medical Examiner, and as if that wasn't enough is certified in Selective Functional Movement Assessment - Level 1.  His mission is to provide the highest quality, patient-centered, outcomes-based healthcare.

Selling - A Rant

Selling and the chiropractic profession. I get it.

In reality we are all selling something in our daily lives. We've all heard that before. We do have to sell our care, we even have to sell ourselves to our spouses. That cliche is everywhere, and true. 

I'm not here to condemn "selling". We all have to make our cheddar. We should always encourage the production of novel and innovative products and services. And the creators of those things should be rewarded for their work and contribution to the profession and society at large. 

My conception of what the chiropractic profession is as an entity constantly evolves. When I was younger I thought that if you practiced, you'd make plenty of money, and after a long career, with sound financial planning, you'd be able to retire into the sunset satisfied with a job well done. 

The thought always was that your income and return on investments (home, stocks, etc) would outpace student loan interest rates and debt, and eventually you would come out on top due to the graces of compound interest. The American Dream is mathematics. 

But if you look at our profession in its current state, that is NOT the reality we see. Nearly everyone is selling something or has their hands in something beyond their clinical practice. Products, consulting, services, insurances, supplements, seminars, books. 

The new chiropractic dream is to create a thing that will make you enough money to not have to practice anymore. I'm not condemning that either. 

What I am not comfortable with is colleagues who behave purely in a pecuniary manner. Where their every action, every motive, every social media comment or private interaction, is one that attempts to move their audience towards a sale, towards their product, towards their service. 

The audience gets wise to that. Eventually they see your name on a post and KNOW it's going to be a sale/product pitch. I don't want this group to be that. I was kind of hoping this group would be about real DCs sharing their real ideas in a virtually real environment. 

I wanted leaders and the old guard in here sharing wisdom and old stories and resources. I wanted the successful sharing how they did it and how you can too. I wanted the not successful yet to be able to ask for help and direction. I wanted it to be open sourced. 

That doesn't mean that success doesn't come with a cost. We all have to invest in our success. But I feel personally there are some peers in our profession who hold extremely valuable information from others, for ransom, in order to profit off of it. That doesn't help raise the bar. I'm not about that. 

Our leaders fail us. Our education at times fails us. Our professions divisiveness fails us. The last hope we have is to turn to our closest peers and sometimes they fail us, in order to protect their income/proprietary ideas. 

The FTCA is heavily researching what it will take to become a non profit organization. There are individuals who sell products or services that have come forward and offered percentages of their companies profits to go towards the FTCA. They believe in what the group stands for and want to see it succeed. They will be "advertising" to you, also with a strict understanding that they will be expected to EMPOWER you as well. Not just sell. 

I prefer not to hold knowledge for ransom, or participate in pay to play clubs who hijack knowledge that should be readily available to the whole, for the sake of profit. 

That is NOT patient centered thinking.

RCT Worshippers Rejoice! All Hail the RCT!

Recently I have noted in social media that straight chiropractors, who are partial to relying on anecdotal evidence and case studies to justify their treatments, have resorted to a new straw man attack against evidence based chiropractic.  They now like to utilize the phrase "RCT Worshipper" as a slur against evidence based chiropractors.  They do this when their claims of efficacy are challenged, or when asked for literature to back up the all too common outrageous statements made on social media.