feature Connecting with the Future Expanding the profession’s footprint in a changing health-care landscape “Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences.” –Robert Louis Stevenson Dr. Jody Anderson consults in the fitness industry with a focus on speaking and writing about health and wellness matters. He is also involved in change-behaviour, working with an evidence based set of practical tools geared towards improved quality of care, improved clinical outcomes and increase in health professionals’ job satisfaction, within the health-care field. A s we write this article, we realize that life as chiropractors has been good for both of us and we are mindful and aware that we have been very fortunate. We also recognize that we are among an ever-shrinking minority, and that there are some very real problems afoot in our profession today. We first met in 1988, when chiropractic was enjoying the effects of a hot economy in what has been dubbed the “Mercedes ’80s.” Fast-forward 25 years to the present day – we find ourselves on the heels of a global economic collapse with the Canadian health-care system buckling under the strain of poor planning and inefficiency. In all of this, the winds of change have not blown favourably for chiropractic. At this time, we would like to objectively evaluate chiropractic within the larger spectrum of emerging health-care needs. Our goal is to identify a path for chiropractic success today and, more importantly, within the future landscape of the emerging health delivery paradigm. RESEARCH MODEL, À LA GLADWELL In the spirit of objectivity and in our attempt to remain “relevant,” while conducting our own research we utilized a Malcolm Gladwell-type approach. We chose Gladwell, a journal-ist with Canadian roots and the best-selling author of the widely acclaimed and referenced books Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers, as a guiding model. Gladwell-type thinking involves uncovering and discussing unexpected truths, possibly redefining our collective mandate based on new discovery and informing those who seek to understand the same. As we embrace this approach, we hope to uncover signals and clues to guide us in finding new direction for a profession that we estimate to be in serious peril. Our intent is to harvest sufficient data so as to formulate new strategies that support growth, while staying true to the “Big Idea,” put forth by B.J. Palmer in 1944, that forged our defining identity. OUR OBSERVATIONS It is a fair and accurate observation that a growing number of chiropractors today do not enjoy a reasonable quality of life, do not achieve high professional satisfaction and do not enjoy financial stability. Although anecdotal evidence suggests that although we are generally well-liked by our patients, the profession continues to be poorly understood and not well trusted by the rest of the health-delivery community. Research indicates that New Patient Visit Rates and Patient Usage (two accepted and objective economic indicators of predictive future market strength and business “suc-cess” in any sector) have been on the decline for a number of years. 1 A comparison of annual earnings and work intensity of health and non-health professions in Canada, revealed that chiropractors had a decrease in median annual income (-30.9 per cent) between 1991 and 2001. 2 Consumer adoption rate in any industry/business is an important and accepted mea-sure of predicted future economic success. Measurable variables such as adoption rate, market share and penetration are used by loan managers to evaluate a business’ ability to service debt when calculating the feasibility and viability of any business. This same model can be applied to anticipated future success for a chiropractic clinic. One bank-indicator that quickly measures our profession is the change in chiropractors’ ability to borrow money on the merit of business potential alone. Due to the high number of failed and failing chiropractic businesses, chiropractors are now considered “Triple A” www.canadianchiropractor.ca Jody Anderson, BHK, DC Dr. Pooley graduated from CMCC in 1978 and has been in practice in St. Thomas, Ont., where, 14 years ago, he created Canada’s first true comprehen-sive natural health care centre. He has served as president of both the OCA and the CCA. He was elected to the CCO in 2008 and sits on the CCO Quality As-surance Committee. Doug Pooley, DC 8 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | JUNE 2013
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