Colloca, Keller, Gunzburg Win Top International Research Award       

 

ORLANDO, FL, May 3, 2003 - Dr. Christopher J. Colloca and co-authors Dr. Tony Keller, and Dr. Robert Gunzburg received the prestigious Scott Haldeman Award for 1st Prize in the International Research Paper Competition at the 7th Biennial Congress of the World Federation of Chiropractic, held on May 1-3, 2003 at the Disney World Hilton Resort in Orlando, FL.  The $7,000 award sponsored by the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners was given to Dr. Colloca and his collaborators for their research entitled, Biomechanical and Neurophysiological Responses to Spinal Manipulation in Patients with Lumbar Radiculopathy, a study that investigated the mechanisms of spinal manipulation.  The award winning paper will appear in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics in early 2004.

            Over 150 papers from 11 countries were submitted to the conference and only the best 32 were accepted for platform presentation which were then eligible for first, second, and third prize awards.  “I was very surprised, but knew that our work was unique and novel due to the multi-disciplinary nature of our collaboration in the fields of chiropractic, biomechanics, and orthopedic surgery,” said Dr. Colloca.  His co-authors, Tony Keller, Ph.D. is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Vermont, in Burlington, VT and Robert Gunzburg, M.D., Ph.D., is a Senior Consultant in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Centenary Hospital, in Antwerp, Belgium and Associate Editor of the European Spine Journal.  Drs. Keller and Gunzburg are both leaders in their fields with numerous biomedical journal publications, textbooks and textbook chapters to their credit.

            For this study, Drs. Colloca and Keller traveled to Antwerp, Belgium on four occasions to collect data with Dr. Gunzburg during the spine surgeries that he was performing on his patients.  The research specifically involved measuring the movement of the spine and activity monitored from the spinal nerves where they exit the spinal cord during chiropractic adjustments delivered to different levels at different vectors.  From this work, it was found that chiropractic adjustments produced measurable spinal motion and compound action potentials that were significantly different from sham adjustments.  Adrian Upton, M.D., Head of Neurology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada who participated in judging the research competition said, “Of the research presented at this conference, this study has the potential for the most impact for the chiropractic profession.” 

            Second-prize ($4,000) in the International Research Competition went to Dr. Eric Hurwitz, D.C., Ph.D. and colleagues from the Department of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health for their study, Chiropractic-related Adverse Reactions and Their Effects on Satisfaction and Clinical Outcomes Among Patients Enrolled in the UCLA Neck Pain Study.  Third-prize ($2,500) was given to Hugh C. Hurst, D.C., M.S. and Jennifer E. Bolton, Ph.D. from Anglo-European College of Chiropractic for their paper, Assessing the Clinical Significance of Change Scores Recorded on Subjective Outcome Measures.  The private practice award ($1500) was won by R. Kevin Pringle, D.C., M.Ed., for his paper, Guidance Hypothesis With Verbal Feedback in Learning a Palpation Skill.  Special honor awards for outstanding contributions to the international growth and acceptance of the chiropractic profession were given to Dr. John Allenburg, Past President, Northwestern University of Health Sciences, Bloomington, Minnesota, and Dr. Alan Breen, from the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic, Bournemouth, the United Kingdom.

            In addition to his research interests, Dr. Colloca maintains a full-time chiropractic practice, State of the Art Chiropractic Center, P.C., treating patients in Ahwatukee where he employs a staff of three chiropractors and two assistants.   He holds appointments in the post-graduate faculties of five chiropractic colleges and travels extensively throughout the United States and around the world teaching other chiropractors the latest advances in the field.  Dr. Colloca was also recently accepted into the Department of Kinesiology at Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ) where he is completing a Master’s degree in biomechanics to assist him in his research efforts. Dr. Colloca graduated from Ithaca College (Ithaca, NY) with a B.S. degree in Exercise Science in 1990 where he also received All-American honors in Football and co-captained the team, and graduated from Life College, School of Chiropractic (Marietta, GA) cum laude in 1995.

            Dr. Colloca gratefully acknowledged those providing financial support for this research. Dr. William Harris from the Foundation for the Advancement of Chiropractic Education (F.A.C.E.) donated $100,000 to this research effort over the past 2 years, Chiropractic Biophysics, Non-profit, Inc. raised matching F.A.C.E. funds and supported the work, and the National Institute of Chiropractic Research provided early financial support of the study. 

            Two other CBP® Non-profit supported studies were presented on the platform by Dr. Deed Harrison and a fourth was presented in poster format (Table 1).