industry news and legislative updates

ACA HOLDS NATIONAL CHIROPRACTIC LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE

From March 3-6, over 450 doctors of chiropractic, chiropractic students and chiropractic supporters met in Washington, DC at the American Chiropractic Association’s 29th annual National Chiropractic Legislative Conference to hear speeches from government leaders and to urge elected leaders to support chiropractic legislation. Some of the central issues addressed at the NCLC included prompt implementation of the Medicare chiropractic demonstration project; restoration of the Department of Defense's Chiropractic Advisory Panel and extension of chiropractic care to military retirees, beneficiaries and survivors; fairness for doctors of chiropractic in the National Health Service Corps; and implementation of the chiropractic benefit for veterans as approved by Congress.

For more information, visit www.acatoday.com

Massage Therapy Research Consortium

(This news story courtesy of the Collaborative for Healthcare Renewal Foundation Newsletter.  To subscribe to the newsletter visit their website at www.thecollaboration.org)

Over the past year, nine massage therapy schools have joined together to create the Massage Therapy Research Consortium. Their goals: to enhance research capacity and activity at each member school, and also advance massage therapy education and practice generally. The schools include: BODY THERAPY INSTITUTE (NC), BRENNEKE SCHOOL OF MASSAGE (WA), CORE INSTITUTE (FL), IPSB COLLEGE (CA), KINE-CONCEPT INSTITUTE (Quebec), MUSCULAR THERAPY INSTITUTE (MA) POTOMAC MASSAGE TRAINING INSTITUTE (D.C.), SOMERSET SCHOOL OF MASSAGE THERAPY (NJ), and SWEDISH INSTITUTE SCHOOL OF MASSAGE THERAPY (NY).

Janet Kahn, PhD, is the director of research. "Our initial focus will be internal education on research design and research methods, because that hasn't been something massage educators receive during their initial training," she says. Kahn is a research assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont and a practicing massage therapist.

The consortium has been acting as a consultant to the Harvard Medical School Division For Research And Education In Complementary And Integrative Medicine – OSHER INSTITUTE to create scope of practice documents for massage therapists, as part of an NIH grant to develop a model of integrative care. "As a research scientist and massage therapist, who is not an educator, it's very exciting to be working with massage therapy educators. There is such a wealth of experience here that ought to inform both the content and design of research on massage. I’m just overjoyed to be creating, together with these educators, a structure through which that could become possible." For more information: Kahnj@jsc.vsc.edu