The Evidence Based Chiropractor Blog

Hundreds of chiropractic marketing and research articles to help you grow.

Jeff Langmaid 4/16/14 Jeff Langmaid 4/16/14

"Back Pain- 5 Things You Need to Know" from The Evidence Based Chiropractor

We are happy to release our first publication in our new patient education series. You can get a FREE copy of "Back Pain-5 Things You Need to Know" right HERE.

Jeff Langmaid 4/9/14 Jeff Langmaid 4/9/14

Doctors Pay Made Public- by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

Today is a landmark day as physician pay totals from CMS (Medicare) have been made public. This was bitterly opposed by the American Medical Association, however, their lobbying dollars couldn't stop the 'freedom' of information.

At nearly 1 million rows of Excel content, the list is quite challenging to sort through. It contains the payment information for services rendered in 2012. Additionally, it touches on the services billed, number of Medicare patents, physician name, physician address, NPI, and submitted charges. Arguably, this is actually valuable information for the public to have. They will now be able to identify those physicians who are running medical "mills"; where services are standardized and done in overwhelming volume.

Some early data miners have found that over 4,000 physicians received payment of over $1 million dollars in 2012 from Medicare. Also, a Florida Ophthalmologist received $21 million dollars for services rendered in 2012.

In my opinion, transparency regarding payment of health care services is a good thing. Chiropractic care is cost-effective, safe, and effective. When new organizations start "outing" physicians who are doing invasive work for extreme prices, this will inevitably start to push the pendulum even further towards diagnosis and outcome based reimbursement models.

If you or your patients have interest, the list is available here- https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/Physician-and-Other-Supplier.html

-The Evidence Based Chiropractor is the leading DC/MD marketing and outreach group in the world. Our service is dedicated to increasing chiropractic utilization by showcasing research. Marketing to medical doctors through research is efficient, cost effective, and can dramatically improve your incoming referrals. Join us. Lets grow chiropractic together.

Jeff Langmaid 4/4/14 Jeff Langmaid 4/4/14

SPINE JOURNAL regarding chiropractic, "a statistically and clinically significant benefit..."

In 2013, SPINE Journal produced the research article, "Adding Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy to Standard Medical Care for Patients with Acute Low Back Pain: The Results of a Pragmatic Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Study."

In it, the authors came to the following conclusions-

“The results of this trial suggest that Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy in conjunction with standard medial care offer a significant advantage for decreasing pain and improving physical functioning when compared to standard care alone, for men and women between the ages of 18-35 with acute low back pain.”

“There was a statistically and clinically significant benefit to those patients receiving chiropractic manipulative treatment...”

“The majority of systematic reviews find that chiropractic manipulative therapy appears to reduce pain and disability at least moderately for many low back pain patients.”

“73% of participants in the SMC plus CMT group rated their global improvement as pain completely gone, much better, or moderately better, compared with 17% in the SMC group.”

This is further proof that working together and promoting multidisciplinary care will yield superior outcomes for our patients.

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Jeff Langmaid 3/28/14 Jeff Langmaid 3/28/14

Chiropractic Care Supported by the American Pain Society and American College of Physicians - by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

A variety of clinical guidelines support and encourage the use of chiropractic care due to its safety and efficacy. In 2007, the Annals of Internal Medicine released a series of clinical guidelines. The clinical guidelines for the treatment of low back pain were supported by the American Pain Society and the American College of Physicians.

These guidelines reveal some interesting data. They report 65% of primary care physicians recommend massage, 55% recommended ultrasound, and 22% recommended (of performed) spinal manipulation. They also found that only 2 treatment options show strong efficacy for the management/treatment of acute (<4 weeks duration) low back pain. These treatment options were spinal manipulation and heat. For sub-acute and chronic low back pain the researchers still found spinal manipulation to be a valuable treatment option.

When we look at this study we can draw a few conclusions. First, only a small minority (22%) of physicians are recommending spinal manipulation to their patients. Second, spinal manipulation is a recommended treatment option.

The discrepancy in the recommendations from the clinical guidelines and the recommendations by the physicians is no surprise. Other studies have shown that primary care physicians recommendations for low back pain are "high discordant" with current research. Without a profession wide marketing and outreach campaign for the promotion of this research, the task falls to us, as individual providers to build referral relationships.

Jeff Langmaid 3/20/14 Jeff Langmaid 3/20/14

Statins for Every Man in America? - by The Evidence Based Chiropractor

A remarkable and frightening new set of guidelines were recently released by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. They have decided to expand the "treatment" of cholesterol by including an additional 13 million people who should be recommended statin "therapy".

Looking closely at the guidelines it appears that nearly 90% of men ages 60-75 years old will now be recommended to be prescribed statins. Women in this age group who qualify for statins under the new guidelines are over 50%. Eligibility will now be determined on a "10 year risk for cardiovascular disease" as opposed to being based on LDL/HDL levels.

Despite a lack of randomized controlled trials and grade 1 evidence these new guidelines have been adopted by the powerful organizations mentioned above. As these guidelines are adopted by Medicare, primary care physicians will undoubtedly be pressured into prescribing these medications. By not following the guidelines they may be placing themselves as risk for penalties. There is no doubt that these guidelines were heavily supported by the controlling pharmaceutical companies in the US.

The side effects of statin use are well documented. It is imperative that our patients, neighbors, and friends are well informed regarding cholesterol levels and the various treatment options available to them.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/822210?src=wnl_edit_newsal&uac=193860MN#2

http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/side-effects-of-statin-drugs

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