New CCA President Appointed to Task Force
Dr. Willard Smith, recently sworn in for a second term as president of the California Chiropractic Association (CCA), has been appointed by California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi to serve on the Insurance Department's Task Force on Consumer Complaints.
Dr. Smith has been assigned to represent the chiropractic profession and patients on the Health/Life/Disability subcommittee. His introductory remarks at the Task Force's first meeting stressed that chiropractic patients and their doctors are seeking "a level playing field" to show the value of chiropractic care and receive fair coverage within the insurance system.
Dr. Smith was sworn in as CCA president at the association's 63rd Annual Convention in Monterey. Since joining the CCA in 1968, he served as the CCA's second vice president, treasurer, and secretary. Dr. Smith is past president of the Alameda County Chiropractic Society, and is active in the American Black Chiropractic Association. A graduate of the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, Dr. Smith was appointed by then-Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., to the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners in 1976 and served for over eight years on the Board.
CCA Presents Awards at Annual Convention
At its Annual Convention in Monterey, the CCA presented awards to various associations and individuals. Dr. Robert L. Dark was named "Doctor of the Year;" Darrick W. Lawson received the "Student of the Year" award; the "Society of the Year" was the Contra Costa Chiropractic Society; and the "New Doctor of the Year" was Diane Melendrez.
Many relevant diagnostic signs are not performed deliberately by the examiner or by the patient at the examiner’s direction. They are observed as the patient reacts to their condition. Fortin’s finger sign, Minor’s sign, and Vanzetti’s sign are three examples of this principle.
Spearheaded by burgeoning scientific and clinical research literature, psychedelics have reached a level of media coverage and popular interest that has not been seen for over half a century. By “psychedelics,” we are referring to the unique class of substances that includes psilocybin (the active compound found in so-called “magic mushrooms”), LSD, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ayahuasca, 5-MeO-DMT, and mescaline – each of which occurs in the natural world (except for LSD, which is a semi-synthetic compound).
While working at the Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, N.M., one of the primary care physicians stated that imaging every patient prior to receiving chiropractic was not medically necessary. It was at that point I reconsidered the need for the imaging of every patient to avoid malpractice.
