Sweet 16 and the chiropractic profession
By Gene Veno

By the time this article is published, a new college basketball champion for the 2005–2006 season will have been crowned. Of course, this article is not about basketball. My life is devoted to chiropractic. And when I write, it is about the chiropractic profession.

But, basketball inspired this article. You see, I have a habit of equating everyday life experiences to chiropractic. The headline of this article demonstrates how this works for me.

The Sweet 16, which leads to the “Final 4” championship game, is a result of hard work and special skills that take a team to the final game of the season. Team members work all season developing shooting skills and training to go the distance so they can go all out for the final win and hoist a trophy signifying their team’s national accomplishment and recognition for all to see and envy.

The situation of the chiropractic profession is similar. This profession has been in training for more than 110 years. The members of the profession have developed techniques and skill sets so that it may one day arrive at the final championship game.

To date, we have not achieved the national recognition we so rightfully deserve, but we keep working at it each day. One day we will go head-to-head with the healthcare competition and demonstrate to the entire world that chiropractic is a tremendous healthcare resource.

Our time will come. But, when?

BACk TO BASICS

What key does the team need to lock in a championship? The answer: Working on the basics.

Basketball teams work at their shooting and defense over and over again, until they establish a rhythm that cannot be broken. Just as a championship team must hone its skills, so must the chiropractic profession.

Unfortunately, the profession doesn’t do this.

This profession (in my opinion) does not work on the basics. We are too quick to ignore what made the profession great, and we have allowed too many mixed messages to take the profession off course.

Whether those messages have been philosophical, educational, or personal, they have caused the profession to lose focus. We are missing the basics and we need to reestablish the basic skill sets before some other healthcare profession comes along and provides the skills you have to your current, and future, patients!

It is no secret that chiropractic is being challenged. The doctor of physical therapy degree is on the horizon; and medical doctors and osteopaths want to protect their right to manipulate.

If the chiropractic profession sticks to the basics by educating the public on what it is this profession does for its millions of patients, it will achieve a place in the “championship game.”

If we allow the profession to get sidetracked into being something we are not, despite our superb education and training, the profession will never reach the “championship game.”

“Focus on what got you to the ‘final dance!’” is what you hear the coaches of the final 16 teams tell their players. I offer the same sound advice to the chiropractic profession nationally: Focus on what got you to where you are today. Be the best healthcare provider by delivering what the public needs when visiting your office.

History is replete with stories of corporations, companies, and individuals who had achieved a niche and were viewed as the experts, only to try to extend their brand beyond what the consumer would accept.

Volkswagen is a good example. This company made good, inexpen-sive cars. It owned the Beetle and the Rabbit. Even its slogan “From Bugs to Bunnies” was a great campaign. Then, the company developed a luxury automobile. What happened? Its sales declined. Few consumers wanted an expensive VW.

So it is with the chiropractic profession. The profession was built in the minds of the public on musculo-skeletal conditions and our ability to relieve pain. That is what got the patient into your door initially.

Undoubtedly chiropractic care has resulted in many stories of miracle recoveries. But what motivated these miracle patients to go the chiropractor in the first place? In all probability, it was pain — back pain, neck pain, or some other musculoskeletal distress.

Only after they were in the office and received chiropractic care did they discover the full benefits of chiropractic.

My advice to the profession is simply this: Focus on the skills and knowledge that brought you to the dance. Then build on what you have. Nurture it and develop it. In good time, when critical mass is reached, a tipping point will occur and the profession will be transformed by evolution.

Gene Veno is executive vice president of the Pennsylvania Chiropractic Association and president of the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress. He can be reached at gveno@foundation4cp.com.