This past week in Business Management, we discussed personal injury protection. Last week, I completed the second module of Dr. Arthur Croft’s Whiplash program. The weekend seminar was perfect timing in reference to my curriculum. We discussed many of the same topics in class that I went over in the seminar. I was able to ask my professor for better clarification on some of the points from the seminar and it helped add to the discussion.

A lot of what we went over in class was similar to what was taught in the seminar and that says a lot about the program at NUHS. Doctors came from all over the country to attend Dr. Croft’s seminar and we cover a lot of the same topics in our curriculum. I have heard criticisms of chiropractic schools leaving out the business aspects of practice but our program has covered marketing, management, third party payers, personal injury protection, jurisprudence, and more. We came up with a business plan last trimester and we will refine it by the end of this trimester. I am happy I took the seminar that gave me a better understanding of personal injury cases and I am even happier to be able to discuss it in class. 

As evidence-based practitioners, we use research to assist in our clinical decision-making. We are going over the PICO process in another class. PICO is an acronym that stands for Patient, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome. It is a template for how to ask and answer a clinically-based question. We each have to do a presentation using PICO for our class. I am presenting on patients with type 2 diabetes using chromium in comparison to metformin to improve insulin sensitivity. When I am done with my presentation I will write about my presentation and the research I encountered. 

The PICO process is very helpful because it helps with patient management. I have a few patients in clinic on which I am using the PICO process to improve patient outcomes. A lot of conditions can be managed or co-managed with diet and lifestyle changes. We can also use supplementation, possibly chromium, to help with type 2 diabetes. The main point is I am using what I learned in previous classes and what I am currently learning in my Trimester 8 classes to manage real patient cases.

My education has helped me learn how to find the answer to a problem not just memorize information. One of the main reasons I decided to pursue chiropractic is because I didn’t listen to the conventional medical model that mainly manages symptoms rather than treating the root cause of the problem. Using evidence-based medicine and a comprehensive understanding of the human body, NUHS has prepared me to not only manage patients with the information I know but find the information I need.

If you have any questions, please email me at [email protected].