The first congress of the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC) in 1991 in Toronto, Canada was the single most impressive professional meeting ever sponsored by the chiropractic profession. Chiropractic national associations from 42 countries were represented and 32 countries became the first members of the WFC. Each of the 32 countries is represented by a single national association, with the exception of the U.S., which has dual representation by the ACA and ICA. (See June 7, 1991 issue of "DC".)
The 1993 WFC Congress, scheduled May 27-29 in London, England, looks to be an even more impressive event now that the World Health Organization (WHO) is an official co-sponsor. The WHO is an autonomous agency headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland with ties to the United Nations. Its mission is the attainment of the highest standard of health worldwide.
The theme of the congress will be "Chiropractic and Occupational Health." The opening speakers will be Princess Diana of Wales, patron of the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic, and Dr. Mikhail Mikheev, a Russian physician who is director of the WHO's office of occupational health in Geneva.
The WFC is also working on the WHO's manual on chiropractic and occupational health that is due to be published in several languages.
"Our collaboration with the WHO is proving very important for the international growth and acceptance of the profession," said WFC President, Gary Auerbach, D.C., form Tucson.
Dr. Auerbach has been visiting Geneva every year since 1982 for the WHO's annual May assembly. In fact, the experiences gathered at those assemblies were an important motivating factor in the decision to form the WFC in 1988.
In 1990, the WFC's annual council meeting was combined with the WHO meeting. An international contingent of 12 chiropractors was represented. The DCs were able to meet and establish contact with ministers of health and other government representatives from around the world that is today paying off with the WHO's greater recognition of chiropractic.
"The thing that closed the deal on WHO sponsorship of the 1993 Congress, said Scott Haldeman, D.C., M.D., Ph.D., chair of the WFC Research Council, "was the distribution of the January 1992 issue of the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics to WHO officials. It was the quality of this research ... that gave them the confidence to proceed."
The congress will feature lectures from leading researchers along with platform and poster presentations of current research relevant to chiropractic.
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.
