Posted on 01/01/2005 7:13:21 AM PST by aculeus
Some threaten to resign over the proposed school.
A growing number of professors in the Florida State University College of Medicine are saying they will resign if FSU administrators continue to pursue a proposed chiropractic school.
"I would no longer wish to volunteer my teaching energies to FSU medical school, should it encompass a school of chiropractic," wrote Dr. Ian Rogers, an assistant professor at FSU's Pensacola campus, in a Dec. 15 e-mail. "This is plainly ludicrous!!!!"
The threatened resignations - at least seven to date, all from assistant professors who work part time - reflect a belief among many in the medical establishment that chiropractic is a "pseudo-science" that leads to unnecessary and sometimes harmful treatments. Professors are even circulating a parody map of campus that places a fictional Bigfoot Institute, School of Astrology and Crop Circle Simulation Laboratory near a future chiropractic school.
But the professors' stance has a political aim, too.
Opposition is clearly mounting as the chiropractic school heads for crucial votes in January before the FSU board of trustees and the state Board of Governors.
In fact, the school is now seen as a test case for the fledgling Board of Governors, which critics have accused of kowtowing to Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature on the higher education issues it is supposed to oversee.
FSU was closed for the holidays Tuesday. FSU president T.K. Wetherell, provost Larry Abele and John Thrasher, chairman of the FSU board of trustees, could not be reached for comment.
But Sen. Dennis Jones, the Treasure Island Republican who spearheaded legislative support for the school in the spring, said the professors were "overreacting."
He accused anti-chiropractic groups from outside the state of stirring faculty opposition at FSU.
"If they resign, so be it," said Jones, a chiropractor himself. The instructors don't deserve to teach at FSU, he said, "if they're putting their credentials with people known for promoting professional bigotry."
The Legislature appropriated $9-million annually for the chiropractic school, which was pushed by Jones and then-Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, an FSU graduate. It would be the only school of its kind in the country.
As supporters envision it, more than 100 new faculty members would train legions of chiropractors, with a special emphasis on Hispanic and African-American students. The school would also draw lucrative federal grants in alternative medicine.
Planning began years ago, but criticism didn't ramp up until after the legislative session.
Some opponents see the school as an end run around the Board of Governors, which oversees the state's 11 universities but has yet to consider the chiropractic school. Last week, a group headed by former university system chancellor E.T. York filed a lawsuit against the board, accusing it of failing to flex its constitutionally granted muscle and pointing to the chiropractic school as a prime example.
But some FSU faculty members are upset, too, fearing the school will shatter FSU's academic reputation. The list of critics include FSU's two Nobel laureates - Robert Schreiffer, a physicist, and Harold Walter Kroto, a chemist - and Robert Holton, the chemistry professor who developed the cancer-fighting drug Taxol, which has brought FSU tens of millions of dollars in royalties.
In recent weeks, more than 500 faculty members have signed petitions against the chiropractic school, including about 70 in the medical college, said Dr. Raymond Bellamy, an assistant professor who is leading the charge against the proposal. The medical college has more than 100 faculty members.
Some of them say they're willing to do more than sign a petition.
"I teach wonderful medical students from Florida State University here in Orlando," Dr. James W. Louttit wrote in an e-mail to Bellamy, who shared it with the St. Petersburg Times. "If they decide to start a chiropractic school I would no longer be able to support this program."
"It should come as no surprise that no major medical institution in this country, public or private, has embraced chiropractic medicine," wrote Dr. Henry Ho, a Winter Park physician and FSU assistant professor, in another e-mail. "If Florida State University were to do so, its fledgling attempt for credibility as a medical institution of stature would be severely jeopardized."
The situation at FSU isn't the first time chiropractors have sought to tie themselves to an established university.
In the late 1990s, faculty at York University in Toronto - one of Canada's largest schools - considered plans to affiliate with Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. The plan would have brought York millions of dollars in new facilities and donations and given the chiropractic school academic credibility.
After a bitter, years-long fight, York faculty narrowly vetoed the plan in 2001.
At FSU, faculty have not officially voiced their concerns about the chiropractic school. Bellamy said they fear retaliation from lawmakers if they do.
"Everybody wants somebody else to kill it," he said.
Ron Matus can be reached at 727 893-8873 or
matus@sptimes.com
© Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved
The final paragraph of the referenced article-
An association was found between recent chiropractic visits and the risk of vertebrobasilar accidents in patients under 45 years of age. The patients were 5 times more likely than controls to have visited a chiropractor in the previous week and to have had 3 or more cervical chiropractic visits in the previous month. No significant associations were discovered for the patients aged 45 years and older. Although the results demonstrated an association, further investigation is required to provide conclusive evidence.
There's nothing wrong with homeopathy. It's kept our family off of antibiotics for years - and that's increasingly important as more antibiotic-resistant bugs crop up.
I have been told chiropracters were quacks all my life (my mother being a nurse of the old school). Last year my neck was like yours after picking up something. I was unable to turn to the right without excruciating pain.
My mother thought I should see my regular doc and get some "muscle relaxers." My friend talked me into going to a chiropracter, and after my neck was adjusted I was fine. It was amazing. I had been living with the neck pain for weeks, and then it was gone.
I agree. I had constant back pain for about 15 years. It got so bad that I could barely walk around at the end of the day. I started seeing a chiropractor and it has been amazing. I just feel great and I am able to golf and lift weights without pain.
I have a relative who sells administrative services to assorted professionals. His number one rule in telephone solicitations with chiros is to incessantly address them as "Doctor". They love that.
I think you're right, because I know many people like this myself.
There probably can be a certain amount of good done for particular back and neck problems (that is, specific muscular tension related or out-of-alignment problems) by chiropractic "adjustments," which after all are nothing but deep massages. However, claiming that they can treat everything, and that a patient is never really "cured," is fraudulent (sort of like Freudian psychotherapy, which dates back to the same time).
I think this is stupid. FSU does not need to be turning out quacks, particularly minority quacks, and thereby destroying any credibility it may have and weakening the credibility of everybody who has gone through its med school. The school is trying to build its reputation, not destroy it. And Jim King, who is supporting this, is a RINO of the worst kind.
I actually know one who did. He did it so that he could be of some real help.
Saw a chiroprator for chronic back pain a few years ago.After a full year of weekly therapy, i must admit i didn't make much improvement.Some of my Dr's ideas seemed a little off the wall to me.I'm currently seeing a LMT(licensed massage therapist)who has worked wonders.Very relaxed atmosphere,attractive therapist, clothing optional.
Yup. But they're going to militate for insurance coverage, fill the insurance regulatory boards with chiropractors, and set the insurance schedule for $75 office visits. Just like the MDs.
Given that it's the government we're talking about, I wonder if this actually occurred last night.
"Chiropractic would vanish if there were ever serious reform of the crooked and parasitic lawyer industry"
ABSOLUTELY! I once helped a chiropractor friend of a friend fix some serious computer problems. He had over $500k in deferred billings pending whiplash lawsuit resolution. These guys are nothing more than lawsuit enablers, because the average joe (read jury pool) doesn't know the difference between a Chiropractor and a "real" doctor.
Proving my point.....when I was at this chiropractors office a guy showed up with a completely torn achilles tendon.
I waited in amusement to see how this was going to be solved with a "manipulation" but alas, he sent him to a surgeon...
While cleaning house, the folks need to figure out how to deal with their legendary football coach who is clearly out of touch with the 21st Century and is dragging FSU down the same old dusty road that Bear Bryant took Alabama. He built the Seminole Dynasty, but sadly, he is now is using it to train his bumbling son in a classic case of nepotism. The once mighty Seminoles have become little Jeffie's Tinker Toys.
And of course we all know that these things would NEVER happen with regular M.D.s
I go to a chiropracter who is also trained in physical therapy. He doesn't try any of the coffee enema stuff on people...he helps my lower back when it hurts (residue of a strained muscle from about 6 years ago), and has helped my husband who has an arthritic neck condition.
There are things they do well...and if you know a good one, it is worth a lot for those achies...no meds, but good pain relief...
I doubt that. My mother served on a jury in a personal injury case in which a "doctor" of chiropractic was testifying for the plaintiff. She and her fellow jurors were shocked when he admitted he didn't have even a bachelor's degree, just his chiropractic credentials from a well-known Missouri school of chiropractic, where the course of study included just one basic anatomy class.
I go to a chiropractor on a regular basis.
Of course. Chiropractic "treatment" is like the Hotel California. You can never leave, and you're never cured - at least as long as the insurance keeps paying. I would contrast that to my own recent experience with excruciating lower back pain. My M.D. prescribed a few sessions with a physical therapist - no expensive dangerous drugs - and after a few weeks I had regained full mobility and was almost completely pain-free, and haven't had to go back for additional treatment.
Now compare this to the number of people who die every year as the result of using common anti-inflammatory drugs, or against the number of people who die as a result of malpractice.
I have more respect for used car salesmen and crack whores than I do for college professors. I was in a great deal of pain from a pinched nerve, and one of those 'crackpot' chiropractors fixed me right up. College educated 'doctors' kill thousands and thousands of people every year, so they should concentrate on cleaning their own sty before worrying about someone else's.
Absolutely. And an M.D. involved in insurance fraud? Perish the thought. ;)
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