Is Expansion of Chiropractic Cartel on the Agenda?

While the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) has received a great deal of attention over the past couple of years in regards to its agenda to reshape chiropractic education into a quasi-medical model, few realize that the CCE has an international component – The Councils on Chiropractic Education International (CCEI).

At the most recent meeting of the CCEI, the group developed Vision and Mission Statements and outlined its Goals and Objectives.

Fashioning themselves as the “recognized authority” on “quality” chiropractic education the CCEI’s Mission includes defining “…standards for chiropractic education worldwide.”   

Their objectives include assuring that these educational standards are “evidence-based” and that they (CCEI) define the accreditation process.

According to a report by Reed Phillips DC Ph.D published in the July/August issue of the Journal of the American Chiropractic Association, the continued expansion of new chiropractic programs has “…fueled the need for a strong CCEI and member agencies.”

Interestingly, the report by Dr. Phillips mentions the crisis in chiropractic education in the United States caused by the CCE as being portrayed at the meeting as simply due to “changes in the Higher Education Act that have required the CCE to change some policies and revise language used to describe them.”

No mention was made of the over 4000 complaints about the CCE received by the United States Department of Education from chiropractors and related constituents prior to their recent hearing nor of the opinion of committee members from the US Department of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) that the CCE is part of a “Cartel” operating as a “monopoly” within the profession.

It appears that the Chiropractic Cartel and its monopoly may not be confined to the United States and the traditional, conservative faction of the profession would do well to ensure that its efforts have an international reach given the depth to which the CCE and its related agencies are immersed in the regulation and educational standards of the chiropractic profession.