The chiropractic profession has evolved significantly over the past few decades and has gained support from the public, and from medical and other health-care practitioners. Research initiatives, improved standards of education and an emphasis on evidence-based practices are solidifying the role of the chiropractor as an integral part of the health-care team in Canada and in many other countries around the world. Current trends in health-care funding, and a limited supply of primary care medical physicians, have created both an opportunity and a dilemma for the practising chiropractor. The opportunity is the fact that patients are seeking alternatives to a family medical doctor; the dilemma is that, more often, they are presenting to a chiropractor with complex health complaints necessitating advanced diagnostic protocols, co-management with allopathic providers and referrals for secondary or tertiary care.

There have been recent changes in the legislation of the practice of chiropractic in British Columbia. To paraphrase, in B.C., chiropractic means “the health profession in which a person provides, for the purposes of promotion, maintenance and restoration of health, the services of . . . advice and counseling on matters related to the condition of the spine or other joints of the body and the associated tissue, the nervous system and the overall health of the individual.” Read more