Kathryn Heidt MS and Hui Zhen Lim both students at Sherman College of Chiropractic in Spartanburg SC, were recently awarded Research Fellowships from the Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation (FVS). The Research Fellowships focus on Best Practices & Guideline Development for Management of Vertebral Subluxation. 

Over the past several months the FVS has held a series of conference calls and meetings to discuss a long term solution to the development of best practices and practice guidelines in an evidence informed model for the management of vertebral subluxation. That has resulted in a plan laid out during meetings at this years’ IRAPS at Sherman College to develop a permanent and ongoing best practices initiative. 

At this point in time a team has been established to oversee this ongoing initiative and Ms. Heidt and Lim will be joining that team.  The team will be led by Anquonette Stiles DC, MPH who has been granted a Research Fellowship and accepted the role as Project Manager. Dr. Stiles has already begun working with these students from Sherman to begin their training.   

Ms. Heidt and Lim join four other recent awards granted by the Foundation including Dr. Stiles as noted above. Kathleen Costello MS, also a student at Sherman College, was recently awarded a Research Fellowship from the FVS. The funding for her Fellowship is being provided by the ChiroFutures Malpractice Insurance Program.  Costello’s Fellowship focuses on two crucial areas related to vertebral subluxation including: vertebral subluxation epidemiology and the objective assessment of subluxation in a salutogenic model.  

Christie Kwon DC, MS was recently awarded an Advancing Futures Research Scholarship by the FVS to complete her Master’s in Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia where she will be focusing on Advanced Imaging and vertebral subluxation. 

The Foundation also recently awarded an academic scholarship to Simon Senzon MA, DC, a prolific historical researcher on the chiropractic profession, to complete a Ph.D at Southern Cross University in Australia. The focus of his scholarship and dissertation will be correcting the errors in the literature regarding vertebral subluxation placed by numerous “subluxation deniers” who have peppered the scientific and historical literature with unreferenced and unsupported statements regarding the nature and historical issues surrounding vertebral subluxation. 

With over 100 projects either completed or in the works, the FVS has been hard at work addressing research on the vertebral subluxation along with policy and education issues affecting the profession. In addition to actually conducting research the FVS also supports a team of researchers through its scholarship program with thirteen Fellowships having been granted with the addition of Heidt, Lim and Stiles. The FVS, through its Advancing Futures program, seeks to provide scholarships to individuals who assist in carrying out the Research Agenda of the organization. 

Advancing Futures is our best hope at accomplishing a collaborative, organized movement to research subluxation. The FVS' research agenda seeks to validate the profession and position chiropractic as a vitalistic, scientific, evidence informed clinical practice. The more research, the greater the chance the profession will have of gaining a higher degree of respect, understanding and acceptance in the health care marketplace, the scientific community and among the patients it serves. It is imperative to make these new research advancements available to the public, other health professions, and to legislators in order to promote and to systematically advance the field of subluxation centered chiropractic through the initiation of favorable public health policy. 

We are at a crossroads in chiropractic. A time where we may lose our identity or forge forward with chiropractic leading the new paradigm of health and well-being. As practitioners, we see the evidence of chiropractic adjustments every day in our practices. To us, it is undeniable. But in terms of substantiating ourselves with the value and recognition we deserve, we are in dire need of this Research Agenda to gain our rightful position: leaders in the location, analysis and correction of vertebral subluxation. 

There are so many things one could focus on. The question is what should the focus be? The FVS believes the focus should be on the role of vertebral subluxation and the result of its correction/reduction on health. Through basic and clinical science research, advocating for favorable policy, revising educational standards and service the FVS seeks to place vertebral subluxation at the forefront.   

For more information about the Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation and its Research Agenda please contact us.

ABOUT Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation

The mission of the Foundation is to advocate for and advance the founding principles and tenets of the chiropractic profession in the area of vertebral subluxation through research, education, policy and service.