Oregon DCs as PCPs

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Dear Steve and other colleagues,Wonderful question! I know that I have wondered about this quite a bit. Ihave been in two situations that have helped form my opinion on thissubject. The first is from the medical school, when I was approached by anassistant professor in family practice who asked me about WSCC's DCMprogram. His comment was "how can anyone expect to become expert in primarycare in one year, when a family practice residency takes 4 years tocomplete?" Of course, DCs don't currently even get the one year. If you pickup JAMA, NEJM, or Lancet and read the articles, you realize how complicatedprimary care can get. I realize that most of the time it is not thatcomplicated, but I certainly would have no idea what to do with theadult-onset diabetic hypertensive with kidney failure, and I don't thinkthat it would be fair to such patient that I do.The second situation comes from court. I testify two to three times permonth, sometimes five or six, in various cases involving trauma. I alwaystestify as a trauma epidemiologist and crash reconstructionist, and almostnever as a chiropractor. I usually testify against an orthopedist,neurosurgeon, or biomechanist. Occasionally, the defense will try tocross-examine me about being a chiropractor as opposed to a medical doctor,of course implying that a DC degree is nothing more nor less than a cerealbox-top diploma. There is some comfort for me to state proudly that I haveno desire to stick a needle, scalpel, or anything else into a patient. I amhappy that there are people who do, because their services are certainlyneeded, but I did not go to medical school and get a medical degree becauseI did not want to practice medicine. Chiropractic is a separate healing artthat fortunately does not involve primary care (meaning the really in-depthstuff, not what should be done for a cold), surgery, or heavy-dutyprescription drugs, all of which have their place, just as what I do has itsplace. I am an expert in disease, injury, biomechanics, and non-surgicalrestoration of function of the spine primarily, and the rest of themusculoskeletal system secondarily.After I have finished, at least 2/3 of the jurors are nodding their headsalong with me. It never hurts when I add that while I am not a medicaldoctor, I do teach medical doctors about trauma, and the defense expertwould have flunked my class. But it only takes about 30 seconds of the rightkind of education for the jury to realize that a DC is the expert theyshould be listening to.I am very interested to hear everybody else's take on the questions thatSteve proposed. D Freeman PCP's> Hello all,>> I would like to open up a discussion on PCP's>> 1. what do you think of our ability to act as real PCP's with societies> and the medical establishments preception of what DC's do or don't do.>> 2 Is our training enough to allow us to really preform properly as a> (realizing our scope of practice doesn't) true PCP.>> 3. Do we really want to have the responsibility that being a true PCP> requires?>> 4. if you have been in practice a while >5 years or so are you seeing a> increase in referrals from medical PCP for your services? If so where> are you located? approx. size of your town?>>> Steve Kinne>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------> -- Easily schedule meetings and events using the group calendar!> -- cal?listname= & m=1>>>

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