Australian Consensus Conference Underway

By Editorial Staff

Dr. Phillip Ebrall, chairman of the Clinical Practice Committee of the Chiropractors Association of Australia.

CANBERRA, Australia -- The 38 voting members of the Australian Consensus Conference for the development of the Clinical Parameters of Australian Chiropractic Practice (CPACP) met in the nation's capital November 30-December 4th.

The consensus conference is the culmination of three years work by the Chiropractors Association of Australia (CAA). At the annual general meeting of the association, also held in Canberra recently, the CAA strongly endorsed the consensus conference as scheduled and recommended that the document generated by the conference be immediately placed in the hands of the board of directors of the CAA to ensure the ongoing management and application of its recommendations.

The CAA's Clinical Practice Committee was commissioned by the association to produce the CPACP document. The Clinical Practice Committee chairman, Dr. Phillip Ebrall, said he felt the 12 chiropractors in charge of writing the general guideline statements for the individual chapters, had done excellent work over the past year in generating their contributions to the document. Their work now goes through the consensus process in which the 38 voting members will determine what is or isn't a parameter of chiropractic practice in Australia, and at what level or degree of acceptance it falls under.

Dr. Ebrall noted that although there are parts of the Australian document which will, of necessity, draw heavily from the Mercy and Glenerin (Canadian) documents, that a significant portion of the Australian document is being generated to be specific to chiropractic practice in Australia.

Dr. Ebrall acknowledged the financial assistance given by Dynamic Chiropractic and other organizations to assist the Australian consensus guidelines, with the goal of advancing the profession internationally.