Taking the Offensive

All was quiet on the media front about chiropractic until the recent spate of negative publicity these past few months including the Canadian study on the dangers of chiropractic adjustments and strokes, NBC’s “Today” show claiming that an osteopathic manipulation is gentler than a chiropractic one, and now the WNBC story that aired November 6 about the study in Neurology that connects strokes to chiropractic adjustments (see the complete story on page 11). And with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger promising to address the worker’s compensation issues, chiropractic always seems to be a favorite mark by legislators and the media.

The profession’s associations, such as the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), International Chiropractic Association (ICA), and the World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA), have ably responded immediately and vigorously to NBC and other media outlets about the erroneous and biased reporting.

For a profession that always seems to be a target for bad press, I have often wished for a united offensive front. It seems that chiropractors are going about their daily business and lives when suddenly they are attacked out of nowhere with statistics taken out of context or just plain sloppy and inaccurate research. Hence, the defensive position of the profession.

I was excited when I heard that leaders from the ACA, ICA, The Foundation for Chiropractic Research, Congress of Chiropractic State Associations, Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, World Federation of Chiropractic, Association of Chiropractic Colleges, Parker College, Cleveland College of Chiropractic, Western States Chiropractic College, and the industry trade magazines pledged to support a national public relations (PR) campaign to spread a positive chiropractic message.

With the financial support of the participants, a PR firm would be hired create a united message to be delivered to the public. The meeting of the chiropractic leaders was organized by Kent S. Greenawalt, president and CEO of Foot Levelers Inc, who unveiled two documents, the Declaration of National Public Relations Unity and Pledge of National Public Relations Unity, for the participants to sign.

“Decisions regarding the public relations firm have yet to be made. At this meeting, we intentionally kept the focus on just two things: 1) that we were going to come together as a unified group, and 2) that we would stop sending separate messages to the public. For so many respected leaders in our profession to make these decisions is a tremendous step toward unity—and one that we all can be very proud of,” Greenawalt said. “Because of the level of commitment of everyone in that room, I fully expect that we will be successful in accomplishing our stated goals: to increase the number of people who go see chiropractors and increase chiropractic’s market share.”

In the Pledge, the leaders agreed “to let the experts (the PR firm) run the campaign and to contribute our money, but not our opinions.” The Pledge also acknowledged that chiropractic’s negative image has affected enrollment in chiropractic colleges (In 1996, enrollment was 15,400; in 2002 it had decreased to 10,000. This is a variance of 34% in just 6 years) and potential new patients (only 10 in 100 Americans see chiropractors).

My wish to see a unified profession presenting facts and research to the public may begin to take shape with this new PR campaign. I propose not to just sit back and have the associations and colleges take this pledge, but for all chiropractors to support a positive message spread across the nation. CP

If you would like to participate, please contact Kent S. Greenawalt, Foot Levelers Inc, PO Box 12611, Roanoke, VA 24027-2611.

Miwon Seo
mseo@medpubs.com