As ChiroWeb.com increases in popularity, more and more companies are contacting us to form alliances or joint ventures. A few of these entreaties are from legitimate companies that wish to offer their products and services to doctors of chiropractic on line. Most of the companies, however, are "start ups" that endeavor to capture your patient database by offering you their "valuable" services (translation: "questionable value").
You may not realize it, but a number of companies are trying to get a list of your patients so that they can market to them. Some will offer you a small percentage of their sales (to your patients); many will give you "your own web page" (on a site that hasn't been built) and expect you to be happy.
Their goals are not your goals. Most of these "start ups" seek to amass a list of chiropractic (and other alternative care) patients, sell them someone else's products (regardless of what you may be doing with your patients), and then sell the company (and your patients) for millions of dollars. It isn't about caring for patients, enhancing your practice or supporting chiropractic. They have been bitten with the ."com" bug and hope to be the next to reap a windfall.
Please don't misunderstand. I'm not maligning viable companies offering quality products and services for you to review and assess. There are many such companies that have long supported chiropractic and wouldn't dream of trying to come between you and your patients.
The companies I'm warning you about have some attributes in common:
Start Ups - The company didn't exist a year ago and probably won't a year from now. The future is not rosy for these internet-only, incubation-type companies.1 Name Dropping - It must be the lack of credibility that forces them to do it, but every one of these guys is a name-dropper. "We're working with Microsoft," or "We used to work at WebMD," they say. And the tales grow taller. The fact is, if they were so successful, they wouldn't be talking to you or me.
No Real Services - These "companies" aren't really offering anything. They hope to gain access to your patients and begin selling them someone else's products and earning a percentage of the profits. They're just trying to worm their way between you and your patients or "own your waiting room," as they put it.
Worthless Web Pages - The first thing they want to offer you is "your own web page" on a site that has very little traffic and probably didn't exist last year. This is like having your own billboard at the bottom of the ocean - impressive looking, but not the place to reach potential patients.
E-Commerce You out of the Picture - The big hype always includes the thousands of dollars you will receive as one of their e-commerce "affiliates." Never mind what they sell to whom for how much. Just shut up and cash your $4.58 check every month on the sale of products you've never even heard of.
Selling Out - Almost every one of these "start ups" intend to sell out in three years or less. They're hoping to "roll up the alternative health industry" and sell you off to the highest bidder. They aren't here to stay; they're only interested in you until they sell.
It's clear from the start-up "lingo" that these companies are only in it for the bucks. Everything is about "rolling up," "going public" or "being bought out."
The online world offers viable opportunities, but like every new frontier, beware the bushwhackers and shysters. But regardless of the territory, the rules of survival are still the same:
But go cautiously and prudently. Know the people with whom you're working and understand their goals. If they haven't established a history of supporting chiropractic, work with a company that has. You will be better off in the long run.
Reference:
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.
