Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office Explains the Value of Chiropractic Research
Research makes the healthcare world go ‘round! Research solidifies the role of healthcare’s relief of pain. For chiropractic healthcare, much research revolves around providing evidence of chiropractic’s benefit for painful musculoskeletal conditions like neck pain, back pain, arm pain and sciatic leg pain. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office delivers just such effective, research-documented care to our Groton chiropractic patients.
CHALLENGE: DO HIGH QUALITY RESEARCH
A set of back pain researchers challenged fellow researchers to come up with long-term plans to lower the problem of low back pain on patients and healthcare systems. They explained that developing effective strategies continues to be a huge job for back pain clinicians, doctors, and researchers. Vexingly, back pain disability levels have not increased despite an increased quantity of published research reports regarding back pain care. No consensus on the optimal way to handle low back pain has been achieved. Non-drug and non-invasive approaches like exercise, manual therapy, massage, and such are general recommendations. Other reviewing researchers pointed to a few problems with back pain research: design and analysis within the treatment clinical trials. (1) Designing research studies is tough. Coming up with a “sham” protocol for spinal manipulation that feels like spinal manipulation is really challenging. (Just touching a spine can be relieving some, but that is a topic for another discussion!) Observational studies are the next best thing. How so? Researchers observe what happens to patients when they experience treatment and report on changes and effects. Fortunately, Cox® Technic research has a blend of biomechanical and clinical observational studies resulting in case reports, case series, as well as retrospective and prospective clinical studies. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office feels this mix of research support helps outline the expectations our Groton chiropractic patients may anticipate.
MINIMAL CLINICAL IMPORTANCE
On occasion, chiropractic physicians and low back pain patients alike are frustrated with the outcomes of treatment for back pain. They shouldn’t be! In medicine, the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) is reported 30% or 20% and even 10% improvement. That is reported as an “effective” outcome. Cox® Technic has proposed 50% improvement in 30 days as the goal…and still does. Often, chiropractic patients realize that 50% relief in less than a month and that the 50% relief is closer to 70% or 80% or 90%! Sometimes, a patient’s response may be slower in getting relief or only reaches 30% or 40%. Some patients want more while others, particularly patients who have already gone through back surgery or sought non-relieving care from many other providers, are quite satisfied. A study of 1232 low back pain subjects discovered a MCID pain intensity of 2 (meaning a 2 point change on a scale of 0 no pain to 10 worst imaginable pain). That is not a huge move but is reasonable. (2) It’s a statistic to consider. Weighed against medical and surgical outcomes for back pain treatment that are as low as 10% or 30% expected improvement MCID, our Groton chiropractic clinical outcome goals are high and frequently achievable.
THE CHALLENGE OF CHIROPRACTIC RESEARCH – AND HOW CHIROPRACTIC ANSWERS
Chiropractic, like other complementary and integrative healthcare professions, experiences a little more effort in keeping research flowing as many programs are not incorporated into large university situations with well-established and well-funded research departments. Global chiropractic researchers are seeking am amswer. Australia, Canada, and Denmark chiropractic researchers have created a leadership academy (CARL – Chiropractic Academy for Research Leadership) for early-career chiropractic researchers to promote more chiropractic research. US-based researchers are turning to the RAND Corporation’s Center for Collaborative CIH Research to combine research talent and assets to elevate chiropractic’s quality and quantity of research. (3,4) Strong research carries on at chiropractic universities to record the benefits of chiropractic for musculoskeletal-related pain like back pain, neck pain, arm pain and leg pain.
CONTACT Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
Listen to this PODCAST with Ram Gudavalli, PhD, principal investigator of many Cox® Technic research studies, on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he explains research studies of which he’s been a part.
Schedule your next Groton chiropractic appointment today. Bring your questions about the research supporting our chiropractic care with you! Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office is always ready to share research!
