Market research and applied experimentation on chiropractic utilization, initiated in 2008, have yielded measurable and sustained increases in patient access to chiropractic care.
Focusing strictly on utilization metrics, a controlled implementation among a limited cohort of doctors of chiropractic (DCs) has generated more than 2.3 million additional referrals nationally since 2012—equating to an average increase of approximately 15–25 new patients per provider per month. Extrapolated across the broader profession, these findings suggest the potential for over 230 million additional referrals within the same period, a scale of growth that could have fundamentally reshaped chiropractic’s role within the healthcare system, influencing reimbursement structures, utilization policies, and scope-related regulations.
Importantly, these outcomes are not theoretical projections but are based on longitudinal, real-world data accumulated over the last 14 years. This is based on what we have already done, and I am now sharing it with the profession for you to decide how you want to move forward.
The process also does not require you to change how you approach or deliver chiropractic care. That is sacrosanct in your office. This is about your approach as a doctor. How you triage a patient and your credentials to integrate into the entire healthcare community to be part of the system vs. being an outsider. This is about your credentials respected by patients, medical doctors, courts, lawyers, and insurance carriers. In short, it is about your reputation and clinical excellence.
Central to this advancement is the elevation of clinical excellence and professional credibility. As chiropractors increasingly demonstrate competency in differential diagnosis, case management, and interdisciplinary communication, they transition from peripheral providers to integral participants in patient-centered care. This shift does not require the adoption of pharmaceutical interventions; instead, it reinforces chiropractic’s unique value as a non-pharmacological discipline addressing spinal-related conditions.
During my years of market research, it was evident that organized medicine would need to validate chiropractic, and we needed forward-thinking chiropractic academic organizations to share that vision.
A critical component of this transformation has been collaboration with chiropractic and medical academic institutions. Formal joint partnerships were forged between Cleveland University Kansas City, Chiropractic and Health Sciences, under the direction of Carl Cleveland III, DC, and the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Office of Continuing Medical Education. The two institutions established a joint educational providership that bridged chiropractic and medical academia, which became the foundation for the accelerated growth in the chiropractic industry.
This initiative represents a decade-long effort to unite the professions and enable Doctors of Chiropractic to earn both AMA Category 1 CME credits and Chiropractic CE credits, confirming an equal level of education at the graduate level. The courses are led by top experts in chiropractic alongside leading figures in medicine, including teaching faculty and medially trained experts from Harvard, Yale, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the State University of New York at Buffalo, Stony Brook, the University of Southern California, and other distinguished institutions.
In essence, world-renowned specialists across disciplines—ranging from neuroradiology and vascular neurology to musculoskeletal radiology and beyond—are now educating chiropractic doctors. This training mirrors the rigor and structure of medical residency and fellowship programs, elevating the standard of clinical education within the chiropractic profession.
Doctors of Chiropractic are earning Fellowships, Certificates in Added Qualification (CAQs), Mini-Fellowships, Qualifications, and other advanced credentials across disciplines recognized throughout the healthcare community. Today’s DCs are making critical diagnoses, triaging patients appropriately, and delivering targeted care.
This elevated level of education has strengthened the profession’s reputation, fostered greater cross-referral relationships, and helped eliminate the negative rhetoric that has historically surrounded chiropractic training outside the profession for over a century. It also reduces the dismissive attitudes sometimes seen in surgical settings, where chiropractors have been unfairly and too often fairly criticized for allegedly missing clear referral indications. This level of training eliminates most of that rhetoric.
Equally important, this advanced training positions chiropractors as credible experts—encouraging courts to recognize their authority, further integrating them into the trauma-care system.
While numerous advanced educational pathways are available, the real issue is not the credential itself, but the level of clinical excellence those credentials represent. That excellence is not optional. It is essential to the future of chiropractic.
Our academic institutions are not responsible for creating experts. They are responsible for building a foundation. Just as in medicine and every other healthcare discipline, what you choose to do with that foundation is entirely up to you. Growth beyond graduation is a professional responsibility, not an institutional guarantee.
Academic badges (presented here and below) were developed to make advanced training more visible and easier to understand, both within and outside the profession. In everyday life, most people will never see your diplomas or CVs, and likely would not understand the significance of those achievements.
My goal is to help establish these as recognizable standards across professions, representing a chiropractor who has demonstrated commitment to clinical excellence. Your goal should be to commit just a small portion of your time to achieving these badges, to drive office growth, while helping the profession and your community through a posture of clinical excellence.
If every practicing chiropractor committed to achieving two or three advanced qualifications, the impact would be transformative. Demand for our services would rise. Educational systems would expand. Integration into mainstream healthcare would accelerate.
Most importantly, the profession would evolve into what it is fully capable of becoming: a collaborative, respected, and indispensable component of modern healthcare, one that plays a meaningful role in improving patient outcomes on a much broader scale.
To learn more about the badges, please go to academyofchiropractic.com/credential-badges/.
Mark Studin, DC, FPSC, FASBE(C), DAAPM, is an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Bridgeport, School of Chiropractic and an adjunct postdoctoral professor at Cleveland University-Kansas City, College of Chiropractic. He is also an Adjunct Associate Clinical Professor at The State University of New York at Buffalo, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Department of Family Medicine. He earned his Fellowship in Primary Spine Care whose courses are certified in joint providership from The State University of New York at Buffalo, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Office of Continuing Medical Education, and Cleveland University-Kansas City, College of Chiropractic. He also runs the Academy of Chiropractic’s Personal Injury Program. He can be reached at 631-786-4253 or drmark@academyofchiropractic.com.
Jordan Kovacs, DC, SPFC, is a Fellow in Primary Spine Care and serves as an Adjunct Postdoctoral Professor at Cleveland University–Kansas City, College of Chiropractic and Health Sciences. He is the past president of the Association of New Jersey Chiropractors (ANJC) and currently serves on the New Jersey State Board of Chiropractic Examiners. Kovacs is also the National Co-Director of the Academy of Chiropractic’s Research Department, where he collaborates directly with the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Group in the publication of chiropractic research. With over 26 years of clinical experience, he actively practices in Eatontown, New Jersey.
