Prestigious grant supports ground-breaking research at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College

September 5, 2012 — The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a major research grant to the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) in support of its study of spinal manipulation therapy.

The grant is the largest competitive, federally funded project CMCC has received, with more than $933,665.00 invested in chiropractic clinical research. It is the third grant in five years that CMCC has received from NIH, with the two previous grants being funded in partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The research, led by CMCC faculty members Dr. Howard Vernon, Dr. John J. Triano and Dr. Tony Tibbles at CMCC, aims to establish a manipulation control that will provide a baseline against which treatment outcomes may be measured.

“This approach was very valuable, because it has never been done before,” says Dr. Howard Vernon, noting that the results of this grant will help to improve the rigor of future studies by better defining and controlling variables.

“The methods of randomized clinical trials (RCTs), to date, have not been able to differentiate the specific effects of the active treatment component of spinal manipulation from the non-specific effects such as doctor-patient interactions,” says CMCC Dean of Research and Graduate Education Dr. John J. Triano. “By combining modern laboratory instrumentation in the form of force sensing table technology with clinical research methods and treatment procedures, the investigators at CMCC have engineered a way to fill this gap.”

“We are thankful for the support of NIH, which reaffirms CMCC’s international reputation for leadership in spinal research,” says CMCC President Dr. Jean Moss. “By enhancing understanding of the specific effects of active treatment, this research has the potential to demonstrate the benefits of chiropractic care for a variety of conditions and, ultimately, to inform the care we provide to our patients.”

Source: Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, cmcc.ca