Chiropractic physicians go through a specialized 4 year graduate education that stresses the importance of individualized patient care. The adjustments performed on an elite athlete are quite different than the ones administered to a toddler. When it comes to the spine, no one set of treatments fits all. In fact, it is quite the opposite – each individual has unique symptoms, health history and body structure. Adjustments are based on a patient’s unique needs and delivered through a variety of tools and techniques that are tailored to each person’s body type, health history and size.
This personalized approach is a trend in healthcare that is catching on quickly, particularly within the Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP) model. Cultivating data and building a corrective care model around that data enables chiropractors to deliver precise adjustments for sufferers of a wide scope of misalignment troubles. In addition, establishing clear and quantifiable expectations of how many visits are needed to correct the problems sets patients at ease as they can see a plan for progress along the way. This transparency is invaluable and helps the chiropractic profession build trust in a highly skeptical population.
Providing personalized care to cancer patients is an important goal for chiropractors. However, the perception of a fear of chiropractic treatment amongst this group is considerable and must be addressed to facilitate engagement with the profession and allow for the best results. It is critical that chiropractors are able to communicate the benefits of their services to this group, as well as provide guidance for how best to engage with them.
There was a consensus in the panel that patients with cancer can benefit from chiropractic. This was primarily related to the improvement of function, pain relief and quality of life and that chiropractic can be an integral part of a multidisciplinary patient centred care model for these patients.
The panel members were contacted by email with a link to an online questionnaire that was hosted on SurveyMonkey. This allowed for a streamlined process that kept costs down and was convenient for panellists who may have been geographically dispersed. It also allowed them to answer the questions at their own convenience and without knowledge of other panelists’ responses.
The use of the Delphi method was preferred by panellists as it provided an iterative and iterated exchange of information that could not be accomplished in a focus group. A key recommendation to implement this iterative approach is that questionnaires should be sent out in batches of no more than a few at a time. This allows the survey to be more effective and also prevents fatigue. The iterative nature of the survey also provides a great opportunity for feedback and revisions that can be implemented as a means of improving future surveys. Lastly, the use of one-on-one treatment sessions provides for direct communication between the doctor and the patient and ensures concentration and focused time.