NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- The International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC) is a professional association of workers' compensation specialists from the public and private sector. Virtually every state workers' compensation board has a representative, as do many of the larger Fortune 500 corporations. Membership outside the US includes representatives from Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
In 1973, IAIABC developed its Workers' Compensation College with a curriculum "designed to assist and educate people who are engaged in the management and professional disciplines which are involved in workers' compensation programs." In 1988, the IAIABC established the International Workers' Compensation Foundation to "facilitate funding of research and education projects envisioned by the IAIABC."
In short, for more than 80 years, those involved in workers' compensation and industrial accidents have come together at IAIABC meetings to share information and make their state and corporate programs more effective. Much of your state's current workers' compensation policies have been influenced by information presented at IAIABC meetings.
The first chiropractor invited to become a member of the IAIABC was Charles Herring, DC, of Louisiana (please refer to "The Future of Chiropractic within Workers' Compensation," August 18, 1990 issue). It was Dr. Herring's work as a Louisiana legislature that gave him the opportunity to become part of an organization that was historically skeptical of chiropractic.
The recent forum, "Chiropractic Issues," presented by the International Workers' Compensation Foundation for its members, was held in Newport Beach, Calif., and included participants from across the United States. The panel was moderated by Walter Turner, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Workers' Claims. Presenters included:
The questions were probing, pointed, and sometimes on the verge of insulting. One could readily see there were prejudices against chiropractic among the workers' compensation people. The "warfare" between workers' compensation and chiropractic was quite apparent. The few overutilizers within the chiropractic profession have put a heavy burden on all DCs. But Drs. Haldeman and Phillips did make some headway. Their presentations were seen as reasonable and, for the most part, accepted.
It will be a long time before the sins of a few "big hitters" can be fully erased, but the efforts of researchers and chiropractic representatives can do much to change opinions and encourage equal treatment for chiropractic in the workers' compensation arena.
Many relevant diagnostic signs are not performed deliberately by the examiner or by the patient at the examiner’s direction. They are observed as the patient reacts to their condition. Fortin’s finger sign, Minor’s sign, and Vanzetti’s sign are three examples of this principle.
Spearheaded by burgeoning scientific and clinical research literature, psychedelics have reached a level of media coverage and popular interest that has not been seen for over half a century. By “psychedelics,” we are referring to the unique class of substances that includes psilocybin (the active compound found in so-called “magic mushrooms”), LSD, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ayahuasca, 5-MeO-DMT, and mescaline – each of which occurs in the natural world (except for LSD, which is a semi-synthetic compound).
While working at the Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, N.M., one of the primary care physicians stated that imaging every patient prior to receiving chiropractic was not medically necessary. It was at that point I reconsidered the need for the imaging of every patient to avoid malpractice.
