August 2003

Chiro leaders’ challenge:‘Get involved
and get the word out!’

DAVENPORT, IOWA — The official theme of the Palmer Lyceum 2003 was “Revolutionize Tomorrow! Changing Healthcare One Patient at a time.” But unofficially, two themes permeated the three-day conference that attracted almost 3,500 attendees — a plea for unity and a challenge to “get the word out” to everyone about chiropractic.

“Ideas and words can change the world,” Guy F. Riekeman, chancellor of the Palmer University system, told an auditorium audience in a plenary session. “The powerful play of life goes on, with or without you and me. The question is, ‘What roles are we going to play?’”

Riekeman asked attendees: “How come patients only visit us once every five years? This isn’t about market share; it’s about utilization. If we really want to be healthy, can we afford to visit a chiropractor once every five years?”

As part of the effort to spread the word about chiropractic, Riekeman asked all doctors in the audience to pick up a kit Palmer was making available to help them create a positive public relations campaign at the patient level. “You do [public relations] at the grassroots level,” he said, “and we’ll take care of it higher up.”

In another plenary session entitled “Getting Politically Active — the Power of One Identity,” the leaders of the world’s largest chiropractic associations — Dr. Daryl Wills, president of the American Chiropractic Association; C. J. Mertz, president of the International Chiropractors Association; and Dr. Terry Rondberg, president of the World Chiropractic Alliance — also begged for unity and asked for everyone’s help to make chiropractic a household topic.

“Four months ago, Maya Angelou told an audience at Palmer College, ‘We are more alike than we are unalike.’ The study from Ohio Northern University [published this spring] showed that we [associations] are more alike than unalike.” Wills told the audience. “We should be like a Fortune 500 company that carries the message in one voice.”

“It’s normal to have disagreements,” Rondberg said, adding, “We have to work together whenever possible. … We have a lot of different ways to tell the story.”

Telling the story is one of the efforts the ICA is making, emphasized Mertz. “We need to tell the story of chiropractic one patient at a time. If subluxation becomes a household word, everything changes. … Every new patient needs to hear the story all over again.”

Mertz likened the state of chiropractic to that of cholesterol: A few years ago, no one had heard of cholesterol. But today it’s a common topic in homes, he said. “What we need is a grassroots effort to get the word out.”

Each of the association heads urged the audience to get involved in a professional organization. “We have to commit to move the profession ahead. But only one in six doctors of chiropractic belong to a professional organization.” said Wills. “It’s unfortunate that so few people belong to an organization,” lamented Rondberg.

Dr. David Koch, vice president for professional and international affairs at Palmer, who moderated the panel of association leaders, gave an overview of the worldwide growth of chiropractic: “We see an explosion in chiropractic. The bottom line is that chiropractic is happening internationally. The limiting factor is not people’s unwillingness to hear the message. The limiting factor is the number of people who are willing to engage in a political message.”

The Palmer Lyceum serves as a homecoming event for Palmer graduates and a continuing education event for all doctors of chiropractic. This year’s event offered more than 100 programs on technique, general science and healthcare, practice management, philosophy, leadership and chiropractic staffing.

Source: Editor Linda Segall covered the Palmer Lyceum 2003 for Chiropractic Economics.

Industry News from:
Chiropractic News from: