On June 22, James Salvatore, DC, Instructor of Basic Sciences at National University of Health Sciences (NUHS), participated in leading a virtual presentation and served on a panel for the Chiropractic Educators Research Forum , Technology in Education: Riding the wave of the Future.

Dr. James Salvatore in the NUHS Anatomy Lab

The presentation was grouped into three, two-hour long sessions. The first session began with a keynote presentation highlighting many of the opportunities and challenges encountered when attempting to incorporate technology into education, specifically chiropractic education. Following the audience question and answer period, the moderator asked the panelists two opinion questions. The purpose of the questions was to highlight the challenges and opportunities of incorporating technology into chiropractic education.

“The incorporation of technology into the field of chiropractic medicine is not as out of place as it may seem,” said Dr. Salvatore.

While he acknowledged that a typical chiropractic adjustment may not require an extensive array of advanced technology–at least not in the terms that come to mind when we think of technology these days, he continued, “Simply adapting a standard bench or exam table to more adequately meet the needs of the chiropractor was a technological leap forward for the profession.”

Evidence-based Technology

While some of today’s portable chiropractic tables may not have advanced much from early models, many modern chiropractic tables have many moving parts. And, as highlighted by one of the presenters, radiography was quickly adopted by the chiropractic profession after its development.

“This technology provided chiropractors with the advantage of being able to visualize the alignment and potential pathology of the skeletal components of their patients,” Dr. Salvatore said.

For example, even activities as natural as eating have been modified by technologies. How, what, where, when and why we eat have all been influenced.

“It is no surprise to me that chiropractic has also been influenced by the progression of technology,” Dr. Salvatore said.

Dr. Salvatore has taught anatomy courses since 2013 and oversees the NUHS anatomy laboratory; he also has extensive experience working in various higher education institutions, including Northern Illinois University (NIU), the University of St. Francis and Joliet Junior College. As an instructor at NUHS, Dr. Salvatore says he enjoys seeing students progress successfully through all their gross anatomy lab courses.