|
January 2007, Vol. 17, No. 1
Table of Contents
• Are You Busy Selling Chiropractic or Correcting Subluxations
• BJ's House Needs Repairs • Another Look At Cell Phones
• Chiropractic R.I.P. • Colloca and CBP Nonprofit Study Wins Best Paper Award • Help Us Locate Allen Botnick • Letters to the Editor
• Michigan Chiropractic Society Sees Evidence of Growing Need For Chiropractic • Meeting With Success • A New Look At Mirror Image Exercise • Mourning The Loss Of Tony Keller • Past Present and Future In Chiropractic • Posture Study By UQTR Researchers and CBP® Published by JCO • PostureRay™, PosturePrint™ Helping Doctors Help Patients
• The Importance of A Clinically Relevant Presentation of Findings
• It's Pauls Opinion • Research Corner • Scoliosis: SpineCor Brace
• Triano and CCGPP's Will Give You Six Visits
• Clinical Indications for Videoflouroscopy
• Western States Chiropractic College Receives NIH Grant •
Back To Front Page
PostureRay™ & PosturePrint™
Helping Doctors Help Patients
by Joseph Ferrantelli BS, DC
and Denise L. Perron, BS, DC
Joseph R. Ferrantelli, D.C. graduated with honors from Florida State University in 1995 with a B.S. in Biological Sciences and earned his Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degree from Life University School of Chiropractic, graduating Magna Cum Laude in March 1999. Dr. Ferrantelli is a distinguished Fellow of Clinical Biomechanics of Posture and a Certified Instructor for CBP® Seminars. Dr. Ferrantelli was named the “CBP® Chiropractor of the Year” by CBP® Seminars in 2002. Additionally, he has co-authored manuscripts published in top journals such as Spine, European Spine Journal, and JMPT. Dr. Ferrantelli is the webmaster for CBP® OnLine, www.idealspine. com and currently is in private practice in New Port Richey, FL.
Dr. Perron presently is Vice President of Business Development for Biotonix, a technology company in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She received her DC degree from Palmer College in 1985. Before deciding to help advance Biotonix‚s entry into healthcare markets, she had a high volume chiropractic practice for 15 years. For the past 8 years, Dr. Perron has been a member of the Board of Directors of Somiper Inc., which owns assets in the biotechnology, pulp and paper and aviation industries. She has lectured on Postural analysis and protocols of care at many different chiropractic colleges and universities, including Parker, CMCC, UQTR, as well as medical institutions such as Stanford, and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Since 2002, Dr Perron has also been involved with lecturing to Chiropractors and healthcare practitioners in Japan.
There comes a time in practice when we realize that we want to give so much information to patients and don’t always have the time or the communication tools to do it. The biggest concern most conscientious chiropractors have is providing evidence-based information to patients in a language that THEY will understand. At the same time, the chiropractor needs an objective and valid evidence-based analysis system for subluxation care and management.
In addition to traditional chiropractic, orthopaedic and neurological evaluation, we as the treating doctors, should always include posture evaluation as part of the initial examination. Not only is neutral resting posture reliable and valid for global subluxation detection, it is also a great way to communicate necessity of chiropractic care to the patient along with its relation to health. Posture is something that most patients inherently understand and with a report such as the PosturePrint®, they see their photos with measurements of their deviations from “normal” and quickly understand the gravity of their situation (Figure 1). Having a system such as this quickly and succinctly educates the patient’s family members as well.
Another major challenge that faces us in the office today is not the posture examination findings but rather the x-ray report of findings. As a chiropractor, you already know that to obtain a true and accurate depiction of a patient’s spinal condition, one must obtain spinal x-rays. Patients do not know how to read nor understand x-rays as easily as they understand posture, so it makes the communication of these findings more challenging. Our challenge is to find a way to remind patients of the condition that lead them to our office and use these tools to educate and reinforce our assessment of their spinal problems and the methods needed to fix them. Most patients, once out of pain, forget not only the problem that originally brought them into your office, but more importantly, the findings you reviewed with them in the original report of findings consultation.
Fortunately with the Postureray™, the Report of Findings report has been written for patients on THEIR level so they can understand what THEY are looking at. This report was modeled after the traditional CBP® report of findings which demonstrates a normal x-ray and their x-ray along with their biomechanical assessment compared to normal. Normal is printed for each view that the doctor digitizes. Once we have a picture of the inside of the patient and the outside, we can truly give them a solid report of findings that they can understand after they leave your office (Figure 2). More importantly, you as the doctor gain critical valid and reliable assessment of their spinal subluxations you can tailor their spinal corrective program specifically for them (Figure 3).
The real beauty in this is that it doesn’t matter what technique you practice, the spinal model which PostureRay™ uses for normal is not chiropractic technique specific but rather a mechanically valid established range used to define normal and abnormal. Next, this PostureRay™ report of findings allows the doctor to link to the appropriate diagnoses (and symptoms if the doctor chooses to do so) so the patient will continue to link spinal subluxation with health.
Using both of the PosturePrint® and PostureRay™ in your office assures that patients have a clear and concise explanation of their problems as well as a valid goal of subluxation correction. This will then further THEIR understanding for the need for chiropractic
| 
