Dr. Gerard Clum Is Elected to National Posts
Gerard Clum, D.C., president of Life West, was recently elected to the board of the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) for a two-year term, and was re-elected to serve another term as president of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC). He was also honored by the ICA for his just-completed term as ICA vice president by the organization's incoming president Dr. R. James Gregg.
Dr. Clum has served as president of Life West since 1981 and is currently on a disability leave from the college; Fred Barge, D.C., is acting president until Dr. Clum's return.
Life West Will Host Japanese Students
Life West will provide a four-day intensive anatomy course May 31-June 4 for a 45-student contingent from Tokyo Chiropractic College. The students will be accompanied by Tokyo Chiropractic College President Dr. Utsumi Murakami and Vice President Dr. Hideo Arato. The group will receive instruction from Life West faculty members including Ms. Sue Ray, Dr. Bill Ruch, and Mr. Doug Thorp.
Two additional groups of Tokyo Chiropractic College students will attend anatomy seminars this fall: one group November 8-12, and the other November 15-19. Life West has provided anatomy instruction to Tokyo Chiropractic College students through such seminars since 1988.
FCER Presents Three Life West Papers
The Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research (FCER) presented three professional papers from Life West's Research Department at FCER's International Conference on Spinal Manipulation April 12-13 in Arlington, Virginia.
The papers were "Response of a Patient with Psoriatic Arthritis to Chiropractic Adjustments," by Charles A. Lantz, D.C., Ph.D., and Anthony Pinto, D.C.; "Differentiation between Cognitive and Sensory Contributions in Palpation," by Dr. Lantz, Manola Tdjera, Jim England, and Ron Upton, research assistants; and "Chiropractic Management of a Herniated Disc: Reduction of Protrusion and Maintenance of Integrity of the Disc as Indicated by MRI," by Patsy Dryer, D.C. and Dr. Lantz.
ICA Awards Life West Faculty Member
The ICA named Life West's Dan Murphy, D.C. "1991 Postgraduate Educator of the Year." Dr. Murphy is a member of Life West's undergraduate and postgraduate faculty, and is an expert in whiplash and spinal trauma.
Dr. Murphy, over the past year, has conducted a series of professional development and relicense seminars for chiropractors, sponsored by Life West and the ICA. ICA spokesman Wes Dibbern said that Dr. Murphy was being honored for having "done so much for the ICA, our membership and the profession at large."
Dr. Murphy graduated with highest honors in 1978 from Western States Chiropractic College. He holds diplomate status with the Fellows of the American Board of Chiropractic Orthopedics and is certified by the Fellows of the California Thermographic Society. At Life West he has taught undergraduate courses on biomechanics, x-ray analysis, clinical chiropractic management, and soft tissue injury and repair.
Life West Faculty Members Draft NBCE Tests
Three faculty members at Life West were selected by the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners to help compose future national examinations.
Deborah Lindemann, D.C., assistant professor in the diagnosis department participated on the committee drafting the written clinical competency section of the part III exams. James Hawkins, M.S., professor of anatomy, was selected for a fourth year to help prepare the spinal anatomy portion of the Part I tests. Fred Shahbazian, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry was chosen for the committee writing the chemistry section of the part I exams. These three faculty members traveled to Greeley, Colorado and worked with other committee members in drafting questions for the Fall 1991 and Spring 1992 national board examinations.
Life West Faculty Publishes in Professional Journals
Greg Plaugher, D.C., a member of the chiropractic sciences faculty at Life West, published two papers in professional journals. "A Retrospective Consecutive Case Analysis of Pretreatment and Comparative Static Radiological Parameters Following Chiropractic Adjustments" appeared in the November-December 1990 issue of the Journal Of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. Dr. Plaugher's article "The Knee-chest Table: Indications and Contraindications" was published in the November 1990 issue of Chiropractic Technique.
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.
