At the Assembly, the WFC delegation included college president and CCE-I president, Dr. Joe Brimhall. We had several young chiropractors with the World Congress of Chiropractic Students with us, including current chair and vice chair Erin Spindler and Stan Hom. Erin and recent graduate and former WHO intern, Dr. Dan Bronstein, met for their second time with leaders from the World Federation of Medical Students—opening lines of greater communication and understanding. Other members of our delegation were David O’Bryon, Executive Director of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges; Dr. Rand Baird, chair of the WFC Public Health committee; Dr. Ron Kirk of Life College, who is generating great interest with his Straighten Up World program; and Dr. Betsy Sue Robinson, a former SACA national chair. As an example specifically related to the United States, we were able to visit with the Surgeon General of the United States, Vice-Admiral Dr. Regina Benjamin. I was able to introduce the Surgeon General to a young chiropractor who just graduated, Lance Cohen.

He’s from our school, Cleveland Chiropractic College–Los Angeles.

Yes. Lance interned, as you know, at the Bethesda Hospital [National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda]. He and the Surgeon General were able to talk about his experience. The Surgeon General didn’t know that there has been a chiropractor at Bethesda for something like eight years now. And I was there when she remarked to Lance, “You know, that’s the future of health care in our country, when chiropractors and medical doctors work together in an interdisciplinary setting in the best interest of the patient.”

Beautiful!

We also visited with Mary Wakefield, who is the administrator of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. She’s a major player in developing new health care policy and a very congenial lady. She commented to us that chiropractors were included in the community wellness and workforce sections of the new healthcare legislation. She told us that it’s all up on their website (www.hrsa.gov). So she was very aware of chiropractic. And several in our delegation were able to meet for the second consecutive year with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. It’s important for her to know that chiropractors were there as part of the healthcare professions, and that we’re concerned about many issues involving healthcare, not only in our country but around the world.

We also got to meet with the president of the American Nurses Association, Rebecca Patton. We had a great conversation with her. She remarked that they have been working for a long time [since the early 1990s] with the ACA coalition on healthcare. This is PARCA, the Patient Access to Responsible Care Alliance, which is a broad coalition of many healthcare organizations.  She was very well aware of the cooperation between our professions. So chiropractic is really getting noticed. We are closer than you think to the tipping point—more of us just have to get involved and invest in our profession.

Daniel Redwood, DC, the interviewer, is a Professor at Cleveland Chiropractic College–Kansas City, and Editor-in-Chief of Health Insights Today and The Daily HIT.