ICA Releases Proposal for Changes in CCE

An Initial Report of the International Chiropractors Association's Ad Hoc Committee on the Standards, Policies, By-Laws and Practices of the Council on Chiropractic Education.

According to an ICA statement the ICA's concerns with CCE, and those of a wide and growing segment of the chiropractic profession, are articulated and possible means for resolution are presented. 

The document, written by Gerry Clum DC, John Hoffman DC and Stephen Welsh DC, calls for the maintenance of the CCE as the sole accrediting body of the profession while proposing various governance and structural changes within the CCE.

The only demands made by the ICA that are non-negotiable according to the document are that subluxation management and “without drugs and surgery” be placed back into the Standards. In their document, the ICA frames subluxation as an acceptable “diagnosis” rather than stressing a vitalistic and non therapeutic approach. 

The primary care issue is one of the major concerns of conservative chiropractic groups and rather than demanding that institutions not be forced to train primary care physicians and the extent of diagnosis and management necessary for the practice of primary care, the ICA only requests that the CCE define the term relative to chiropractic. It is believed that some within chiropractic are concerned about a further loss of third party pay should chiropractors not be considered primary care physicians. Indeed, entrenching chiropractors as primary care physicians is one of the signature goals of the American Chiropractic Association which leads the Summit group of which the ICA is a member.

The remainder of the document focuses on the need for changes in structure, policies and by laws which will all have to be addressed anyway due to the demands of the United States Department of Education.

In a related development, the Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation (FVS) released a proposal titled: Reformation of the Chiropractic Educational System Based on Curricular Freedom which outlines a more aggressive approach to reforming the CCE.  According to a letter from Dr. Christopher Kent to the ICA President Dr. Gary Walsemann:

We appreciate the time, effort and thoughtfulness that went into the development of the document including the laying out of the governance and related changes recommended in order to reform the Council on Chiropractic Education. While we consider the recommended changes to be a first step in any discussion regarding reformation of the educational system within chiropractic, we do not believe that the proposal goes nearly far enough to ensure that the conservative, traditional faction of chiropractic focused on a vitalistic approach to the management of vertebral subluxation will survive. We believe that far-reaching reforms are needed that fully embrace the historic and massive nature of the concern and controversy surrounding our profession’s educational system. We need profound reforms.  

The ICA plans on presenting the document during a Stakeholders meeting with the CCE being held during the Association of Chiropractic Colleges Annual Meeting on March 16, 2012.