Association of Chiropractic Colleges Educational Conference and Research Agenda Conference 2014

Leadership was the theme for the 2014 Association of Chiropractic Colleges Educational Conference and Research Agenda Conference (ACC-RAC); the conference title was Aiming for Effective Change: Leadership in Chiropractic Education, Research, and Clinical Practice. The conference was held March 20–22, 2014, at the Renaissance Orlando Hotel at SeaWorld, Orlando, Florida. Presenters and attendees from around the world met with their peers; participated in informative workshops in the domains of leadership, research, clinical practice, and education; and attended research presentations by leaders in the field.

On the first day, the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC) working group meetings were held, allowing educators, administrators, and researchers the opportunity to meet and work on various issues necessary to advance the chiropractic profession. These meetings are valuable because they result in collaborative efforts and a sharing of ideas amongst chiropractic college faculty, administrators, and researchers; paying dividends for students, future graduates, and those in practice. The ACC groups that met for the 2014 conference comprised presidents, admissions/enrollment, assessment and accreditation, chief academic officers, chief financial officers, clinic directors, institutional advancement/development, financial aid, librarians, post graduate, and research directors.

A reception was held on Thursday evening. Dr Brian McAulay (president) and Dr Dennis Marchiori (vice-president) of the ACC welcomed participants. Dr John Hyland, chair of the American Public Health Association – Chiropractic Health Care Section, also made a brief announcement. The reception was held in the main foyer, which displayed the scientific poster boards and booths from the sponsors and exhibitors (Fig. 1).

The Friday morning plenary session addressed issues in leadership as defined by actions and the ability to direct others toward a common goal. Successful leaders establish direction and vision, communicate goals, and develop coalitions and alliances. The plenary began with a keynote speech by Jim Hunter, world-renowned author of best-selling books The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership and The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle: How to Become a Servant Leader. The main points of his presentation included that in order to be a better leader each of us must become a servant to others and that we can develop the characteristics of leaders including patience, kindness, humility, respectfulness, selflessness, forgiveness, honesty, and commitment.

Following the keynote presentation, a panel presentation titled “Learning from a Lifetime of Leading Effective Change” was moderated by Dr Claire Johnson. The panelists for this session were selected based upon several criteria that included broad representation both internal and external to the chiropractic profession, decades of service, their outstanding leadership accomplishments over their careers, and their many years of successful collaboration with other individuals, entities, and professions. Each of the panelists was chosen by the ACC-RAC planning committee to represent the categories of education, clinical practice, and research for having demonstrated successful leadership by establishing their direction and vision, communicating goals, and developing coalitions and alliances on a national or international level. Each speaker has had a long career of participating in many leadership roles and demonstrated the ability to implement change over time and on a broad level. The panelists discussed leadership issues from their life experiences and unique points of view that were relevant to the chiropractic profession.

The speakers (Fig. 2) included Gerry Clum, DC (past president of the World Federation of Chiropractic, past president of Life Chiropractic College West, member of the board of directors of the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, vice-president of the International Chiropractors Association, and past president of the ACC), Wright L. Lassiter, Jr, EdD (past president of 3 institutions; chancellor of Dallas County Community College, the largest community college system in Texas; trustee of Dallas Baptist University; chairman of the board of trustees of Parker University; and an ordained Baptist minister), Reed Phillips, DC, PhD (past president of the Southern California University of Health Sciences, past president of the ACC, past president of the Council on Chiropractic Education, chair of the Chiropractic Advisory Committee for the Veterans Health Affairs, member of the Oversight Advisory Committee for the Department of Defense Demonstration Project, and executive director of the NCMIC Foundation), Louis Sportelli, DC (past chairman of the Board of the American Chiropractic Association, past president of the World Federation of Chiropractic, member of the board of trustees of the Palmerton Hospital, chairman of the Governance Committee of Blue Mountain Health Systems and, president of the NCMIC Group).

The ACC-RAC has 4 tracks of both workshops and scientific presentations to satisfy professional development needs of the wide variety of attendees. The clinical track focuses on clinical topics for private practitioners; the education track focuses on topics for educators; the research track focuses on topics for chiropractic researchers; and the final track focuses on the theme of the conference. As was done last year, a leadership track provided a special focus on issues for the ACC administrative groups. This effort was initiated by Dr Brian McAulay and continued under the leadership of Dr Dennis Marchiori. The 2 leadership sessions for 2014 included “The Art of Facilitation: Making Teams Effective” and “Leadership Strategies for Ethical Decision Making.” Other workshops brought in experts from other areas. For example, one of the first research workshops was on the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine's research-training and career development opportunities for individuals and institutions in the chiropractic profession, which was presented by Drs Alberto L. Rivera-Rentas (Fig. 3), Mitch Hass, and Cynthia Long. Other Friday workshops were offered on the topics of chiropractic in health care reform, clinical skills, academic leadership, technology in chiropractic education, health care quality management, knowledge translation research into clinical practice, care of the older adult, and teaching using Web-based technology.

The Friday luncheon was hosted by sponsor NCMIC. Dr Louis Sportelli, president, and Mr. Patrick McNerney, chief executive officer, of NCMIC Group Inc discussed recent events, the importance of leadership and research for the chiropractic profession, and shared various examples of the research that the NCMIC Foundation has supported. During the luncheon, Dr Robert Mootz was recognized with the Jerome F. McAndrews, DC, Memorial Research Fund Award. This award was created by the NCMIC Foundation to honor Dr McAndrews' longtime support of the scientific and practical advancement of the study of chiropractic. This award recognizes an individual or a group that has demonstrated exceptional ability to advance research and the exchange of scientific information and promote high ethical standards in research and/or practice; contribute to practical applications to chiropractic practice; and interact professionally with other individuals and groups involved in relevant research and application. Dr Robert Mootz was recognized for his drive to educate, elevate, and influence others, specifically the public, health care providers, and policy (Fig. 4). Dr Mootz currently serves as the Associate Medical Director for Chiropractic at the Department of Labor and Industries for the state of Washington. Examples of his work include serving as co-investigator on the “Occupational Health Services Project” aimed to implement a medical home model at the community level for adoption of occupational health best practices, his work with community providers and expert consultants to develop evidence-based practice resources for conservative care providers, and leading a project for agency and state government efforts to improve standardization and transparency for evidence-based health policy making.

The afternoon schedule offered a series of peer-reviewed scientific paper sessions, which were delivered by scholars in the areas of spinal, neurobiological, educational, clinical, and basic science research. Following the scientific sessions, the poster presentations were held during the evening reception (Fig. 5). After the reception, additional clinical, educational, research, and leadership workshops were offered.

Saturday morning began with the midyear meeting of the American Public Health Association, Chiropractic Health Care (APHA-CHC) section. Approximately 30 APHA-CHC members gathered to discuss chiropractic care, public health, and accomplishments of section members; and to encourage others to join the APHA-CHC section. The morning continued with peer-reviewed scientific paper sessions in the following areas of research: diagnostic imaging, education, public health, clinical studies, and clinical updates. Saturday's lunch was hosted by Foot Levelers Inc. Mr. Kent Greenawalt, president of Foot Levelers, spoke to the attendees about the involvement of Foot Levelers in chiropractic education, research, and the dissemination of positive messages pertaining to chiropractic through the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress. Workshops followed lunch on Saturday afternoon. For each of the workshop sessions, parallel tracks were developed for educators, researchers, and private practitioners.

Of the 194 paper submissions for this year's conference, 89 were selected for platform presentation and 67 for poster presentation. Authors were invited to submit their materials for award consideration. From those who chose to participate in the competition, 10 submissions were selected for awards. The National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (Fig. 6) graciously provided awards of $1000 to each of the authors of the selected award papers. Clinical and basic science papers will be published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics and educational research studies will be published in the Journal of Chiropractic Education following peer review and acceptance in the respective journals. The 2014 award winners are listed in Appendix A. All abstracts for the scientific peer-reviewed platform and poster sessions are published in the Journal of Chiropractic Education. For more details about presentations included in the platform and poster sessions, please refer to Journal of Chiropractic Education, Volume 28, No. 1 (available at www.JournalChiroEd.com).

The ACC officers presented several awards during ACC-RAC 2014. Dr Richard Brassard and Dr Jean Moss were presented awards for their many years of dedicated service to the ACC (Fig. 7).

The registration booth was staffed by student volunteers who assisted ACC staff with various supporting duties for the ACC-RAC. Their presence was made possible through the contributions made by Dr Arlan Fuhr, chief executive officer of Activator Methods International Ltd (Fig. 8).

The closing plenary panel speakers (Fig. 9) focused on patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) and accountable care organizations (ACO). It has been suggested that the chiropractic approach to health care may be well suited to the PCMH model; however, more efforts are needed for collaboration and coordination within the overall health care system. Therefore, the panelists discussed how chiropractic could possibly work within these health care environments, what benefits and potential challenges exist for chiropractic inclusion, and what must be done for successful inclusion on an individual level, health care facility level, and policy level to ensure future success. Each panelist provided a unique viewpoint, addressing specific areas of concern. Dr Bill Meeker moderated the session and introduced the topic. R.W. “Chip” Watkins, MD, provided the closing keynote address. Dr Watkins is a senior physician consultant with Community Care of North Carolina, medical director of High Country Community Health (a federally qualified health center in Watauga County, North Carolina), serves on the Physician Review Oversight Committee of the National Center for Quality Assurance, and is the first physician in the United States to be certified as a National Center for Quality Assurance content expert. The panelists were Karl C. Kranz, DC, JD (executive director/staff counsel, New York State Chiropractic Association), and Scott D. Munsterman, DC (member of the state of South Dakota Legislature House of Representatives and president of Chiropractic Associates of South Dakota, a chiropractic independent practice association network).

The ACC-RAC 2014 closing comments were provided by Drs Dennis Marchiori and Brian McAulay (Fig. 10). They provided a summary of the 2014 conference and invited the audience to attend the 2015 ACC-RAC conference, which will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 19–21. Dr McAulay reminded the audience that “the ACC-RAC is the largest annual scientific conference dedicated to chiropractic in the world.” The theme for 2015 will be “Interprofessional Collaboration: Working Together for a Better Future.” For more information about the 2015 ACC-RAC conference, please visit www.chirocolleges.org/accrac.

Claire Johnson receives a stipend from the Association of Chiropractic Colleges as Peer-Review Chair for coordinating peer review and scientific portions of the ACC-RAC meeting and serves on the ACC-RAC Planning Committee; she is also a member of the board for NCMIC. Bart Green receives a stipend from the Association of Chiropractic Colleges as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Chiropractic Education.