June 2003

Official chiropractic spokespersons needed, says Wilk

The public needs to be educated, Dr. Chester A. Wilk told Chiropractic Economics. Wilk was the plaintiff in the landmark Wilk vs. the American Medical Association lawsuit, which ended in a permanent injunction barring the AMA from restricting its members from associating with chiropractic.

One way to educate the public is by having each state association appoint an official spokesperson for chiropractic, said Wilk.

Speaking in response to the article challenging the benefit of chiropractic that appeared in the June 3 issue of the Wall Street Journal, Wilk advocated developing what he calls an Alliance of State Chiropractic Spokespersons as a way to inundate the media with the truth about chiropractic. “We are getting beaten up in the media. We’ve got to educate the public,” he said.

Wilk would like each state association of chiropractors to appoint one or two “official spokespersons” who would contact radio and television stations and newspapers in their states and send out a five-part message:

• Chiropractic has therapeutic superiority.

• It is safe.

• It is cost-effective.

• Chiropractic is backed by clinical and scientific evidence.

• Doctors of chiropractic undergo high quality training.

Official spokespersons would enjoy more credibility than an individual chiropractor who approached a radio station, said Wilk.

Wilk conceptualizes roles for national organizations, state associations and individuals within the spokesperson program. Nationally the organization would encourage states to embrace the program and appoint official spokespersons, he said. The state associations then would identify the “most articulate chiropractors” who would contact the media and press, “not to replace the authority of elected officials but to reinforce them,” he emphasized.

The role of individual chiropractors would be to understand history and solid clinical studies that support chiropractic, to become informed of the advantages of chiropractic and to provide information in their offices for the public.

Wilk is the author of Chiropractic and Medicine: The Need to Work Together for Maximum therapeutic Effectiveness (formerly called Medicine, Monopolies and Malice), the story of his 14-year-long lawsuit against the American Medical Association and 10 other medical associations. The lawsuit ended in appeals court with a permanent injunction against the AMA.

For more information on the spokesperson program, Wilk can be contacted at 773-725-4878.

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