Public Perception of Chiropractic | Podcast Ep. 38

Welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor, providing you with elegant and efficient research based content to help your practice prosper and succeed. Now get ready for a variety of dynamic communication tools designed for immediate growth courtesy of your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid.

Welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor Podcast. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid and we are again going video ed and audio this week as we will each and every week moving forward. We also have the Facebook Live camera going again. So if you're watching this on Facebook Live, you're getting a sneak peek because this episode will not be out until next Monday. So this is a great week for the Evidence Based Chiropractor and certainly for the Chiropractic association in California because a sports symposium is coming up this weekend. I've spoke about it before. I'm really psyched to get out there. I actually leave bright and early tomorrow morning. We'll be headed to Disney in Anaheim and we'll be doing or I'll be speaking, excuse me, Friday, 10am to noon at the California Chiropractic Association Sports Symposium. So, Dr. Steve, Dr. Cabo Bianco, if you're watching this, I'm coming for you. So I'm looking forward to it and it's going to be a great time this week. Our episode is going to be on an extremely important piece of research. It was released by jmpt, the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics in the year 2015. So this is a brand new piece of research and it is truly where research and marketing come together. This piece examined the public perception of doctors of chiropractic. And all of us as chiropractors are also, of course, business owners in understanding the market. Understanding the perceptions of the market and understanding what the consumer, our clients, our friends and neighbors want or what they expect is a huge component to having a successful practice. So I'll read you the official title of this piece of research and it's a long one. Public perceptions of doctors of chiropractic. Results of a national survey and examination of variation according to respondents Likelihood to use chiropractic, Experience with chiropractic and chiropractic supply in local healthcare markets. This was from JMPT in October 2015. So that was a long winded title. But basically what they're getting to is who's using chiropractic, what do they think of it and who is taking and taking that next step as a, as a patient in a chiropractic office. And for all of us, with all of our focused marketing. Whether online, offline, MD to DC or direct to consumer, it's an extremely important part of things. Before we get started, I'll say a few words about Rock Tape as I do it each and every week. Rock Tape is proud to be a sponsor of the evidence based Chiropractor. Rock Tape offers the world's best kinesiology tape, pain relief, topicals, mobility tools and functional fitness accessories. New from Rock Tape is rocksauce Chill, a powerfully cool pain relief topical in a convenient roll on with 6% menthol. It's stronger than the freeze competition. They are more than a tape company, they are a movement company. Learn more and get access to your medical Discount by visiting rocktape.com We've spoke at length about Rock Blades as well their new soft tissue tools. I'm excited to hear Steve talk about it this weekend. So if you haven't heard of Rock Tape, check it out@rocktape.com but diving in today, I touched on this at the top and really, spine conditions are some of the most common clinical complaints that all healthcare practitioners see each and every day. If you've been following the evidence based chiropractor, you know that I talk about primary care doctors seeing 30% of their total volume as relative to spine complaints. So 30% of a primary care internal medicine doctor, 30% of their volume is going to be spine complaints. So this is something that's very common for a variety of healthcare practitioners really around the world. And with an aging population, the baby boomers specifically in the United States, getting towards that senior age or even above that, at this point in time, there's literally millions of people going into Medicare or our senior healthcare bracket each and every year. It's an extremely important part of the healthcare landscape, spine care. And as we examine each and every week, there's perhaps no better tools and there's perhaps no better technique or healthcare profession for safety, efficacy and cost effectiveness than chiropractic itself. So this recent survey looked at 5,000 individuals, experiences, perceptions and supply of chiropractic care. Previous studies as we've touched on, have proven chiropractic to be safe, to be effective, and to be really research supported by and large. So this national sample of US adults showed 14% had received chiropractic care within the last 12 months. While this statistic is higher than other estimates of chiropractic usage nationwide, it's extremely low considering 90% of the population will experience spine pain in their life with 30% point prevalence. So 30% of our given population at any moment is experiencing a spine related complaint. 90% of us will be affected at some point in time in our lives. Working with referral partners, excuse me, in town, is an extremely important part of every chiropractic practice. We're co managing patients whether or not we know it or whether or not the other doctor knows it. Every day, all day, nearly every one of our patients is seeing multiple providers for varying reasons and being able to communicate with them and, and being able to highlight what we do as chiropractors of course is the heart of what we do at the evidence based chiropractor. So looking at this study and diving into how we can use this, let's look at a few quotes from this study. The researchers found, quote, most chronic low back complaints can be managed non surgically randomized controlled clinical trials have demonstrated that chiropractic spinal manipulation is an effective conservative treatment option for certain types of low back pain and neck pain and, and for some headaches. That statement says it all. Research based, effective and high quality RCTs, randomized controlled trials showing the efficacy of chiropractic care for a variety of spine related complaints. They also found, quote, the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society as well as the Task Force of Neck Pain and its associated disorders recommend spinal manipulation for the treatment of certain spinal conditions. So I put this out last week on Facebook and it received a ton of buzz as well that the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society truly actually support the hallmark of chiropractic care, spinal manipulation. So that's an extremely important part as well. Number three, they found, quote, a majority of U.S. adults, 61% believed that chiropractic care was effective at treating their neck pain. So in my opinion we don't have particularly a market issue over a majority of Americans, 150, 175 million people believe that chiropractic care is effective for treating neck and back pain. So they believe in the efficacy of what we do, even if we haven't translated it very well. So that's a nice starting point because sometimes I think there's some disparity between what we think the public perceives and perhaps what they actually believe. Fourth, the researchers found, quote, US adults often use chiropractic care, generally regarded DCs favorably and largely perceive that chiropractic care is safe. So the safety is also an important part of things. Safety is a hot button topic and it should be within chiropractic care and within all other healthcare professions. But the Research fully supports the safety of chiropractic care. But sometimes myth and conjecture get in the way and public perception or even other physician perception can differ from that as time goes on. This research study, again from JMPT just last year in 2015, showed that in a survey of over 5,000 individuals that chiropractic care is considered safe, it's perceived favorably, and that its usage is very open. In other words, people are open to using our service. Probably the biggest challenge that they had with this survey, so to speak, was the agreement level with statements. And I have a good understanding of what a DC does. Only about 35% of the respondents strongly agreed, maybe 80% somewhat agreed. So here's the crux and where this really comes into play. The public believes we're safe. The public believes, and the research supports that, by the way, public believes we're effective. The research also supports that. But the greatest challenge that we're having is, is that the public truly doesn't know or is not 100% in tune with what we do in our office day in and day out. And I think getting that message out not only to the public themselves, direct to consumer marketing, whether that's on social media across that enterprise, whether it's targeted through Facebook, whether It's through Google AdWords, there's a variety of mechanisms to do so. But really making sure that that message is extremely refined with a high call to action, and is a very important part of being a sound business owner and being a sound chiropractor. Because if you're out of business, you're not going to be helping too many people. So you don't need to have the biggest office in the world, but you need to be able to exquisitely and eloquently explain what your office does, how you go about things, however that might be. We might all practice slightly differently. That's the art, science and philosophy of chiropractic. But as time goes on, we want to be able to, and we need to be able to explain that succinctly to the people in our community, our friends and neighbors, because they're relying on us for it. So I love this piece of research for a few reasons. Number one is that it's a pretty large scale piece of research. It's new, which is also fantastic. And it shows unequivocally that the research supports us. Clinical trials support us, randomized controlled trials support us, the efficacy of our care for neck, back pain and headaches. But the biggest challenge, it shows which the challenge is the opportunity is that we as chiropractors and can really take the bull by the horns and make sure that to the public and of course to other medical providers in our community that we're able to succinctly deliver the message of what we do in our office, even if our office differs from the next chiropractor. You have to think on this on a micro level because there are plenty of organizations that are dealing with this on a macro level and those directions are a conversation for a different day. But making sure that you're able to take your message and clearly distinctly position yourself in your community is what's going to set you up 100% for the best long term success. So I hope this piece of research was as impactful to you as it is to me. Doc. I'm looking forward to heading out to California tomorrow morning. By the time this airs I will be back in a plane on my way back to Tampa, Florida. So if you liked this podcast I ask you on itunes. Please go on itunes, submit a review, give us feedback, give us some stars. I would greatly appreciate it on YouTube. Please give it a thumbs up. Give me some comments as well. If there's a piece of research that you'd like, comment down below and let me know. I'm happy to highlight any piece of research as time goes on. This is for you each and every week. Research in the time it takes to get to your office. Evidence Based Chiropractor Video Podcast have a fantastic week in practice Doc.

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