COVER LEADERSHIP Trending now Outlook on chiropractic this year and beyond H by mari -len de guzman ave you checked your online repu-tation lately? If you have no idea where or how to check what people are saying about you, it’s high time to keep up with the times. Online reputation management is only one of several trends chiro-practors should pay attention to in 2016 and beyond. Patient-centred care, collaboration, social credibility – these are terms DCs can expect to hear more of as Have you seen the new year ramps up. No ‘I’ in ‘team’ Collaboration is not a new concept in health care. In fact, many health care service providers, including DCs, are already engaging in collaborative care set-tings, albeit in varying degrees. However, as health institutions continue to develop and implement models of patient care that are both effective and efficient, expect increased participation by DCs in interdisciplinary health practices. “There’s going to be definitely a move toward team-based collaborative working in the future. Those professionals wishing to embrace this must be accepting of different models of care,” says Dr. Greg Stewart, a Manitoba-based veteran chiropractor and president of the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC). Chiropractors have historically operated in sole practices with little opportunity for collaboration. Moving toward a team-based, interprofessional MARI-LEN DE GUZMAN is the editor of Canadian Chiropractor magazine. She has worked in media for more than 15 years and has been editor of several business and professional publications. Contact her at [email protected]. 26 Canadian Chiropractor February 2016 the future? The Institute for Alternative Futures presented four scenarios for the future of chiropractic in its 2013 report, Chiropractic 2025: Divergent Futures. Which predictions will come true? working model may be a big shift, particularly for those who have been in solo practice for a number of decades. More recent graduates and future chiroprac-tors, however, may find the path to team-based col-laboration a little clearer as educational institutions respond to this increasing trend in chiropractic care. “The education models are already making that adaptive change,” Stewart notes. At least one Canadian university is already training a generation of collaborative health-care providers. The University of Toronto’s Centre for Interprofes-sional Education has been training students from its health professsions programs on interprofessional education, as part of their mandatory requirements. The Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) has affiliations with hospitals and commu-nity health centres across the Greater Toronto Area, where students are exposed to multidisciplinary care settings. In Switzerland, chiropractors are trained alongside medical students, and have nine years of medical education under their belts. Dr. Kim Humphreys, a chiropractor born in Kelowna, B.C., is the head of the Chiropractic Medicine program at the University of Zurich. “You need education, experience and skills. I think four years of chiropractic education is not enough. They have to seek out further education. It will give them more credibility in whatever area they’re inter-ested in,” Humphreys says. Patients first An important way to get people to buy into chiro-practic is by “making the patient more important than the doctor,” Stewart says. Health-care organizations and public health www.canadianchiropractor.ca Photo: fotolia
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