For over thirteen years I have been a chiropractor. I love being a chiropractor so very much. It is so awesome to help people heal who could not find resolutions for their problems anywhere else. It is very gratifying to see that by correcting the spinal dysfunction, the nervous system starts to work again and their health improves. I love working outside the normal medical model and having multiple different tools for health care at my disposal. Yes it is true that not everybody has responded to the care I have delivered, but on the majority I have enjoyed helping people achieve better health. To the people I have not helped, "I am sorry that I could not help you. I am constantly studying to find resolutions for your various health problems and I am confident that in the future I will be able to help you."
Recently I was asked my professional opinion about surgery for a low back disc degeneration. I want to share what I shared with my client: I am biased about outcomes for surgery and chiropractic care. Just imagine for a moment, I see most of the surgical failures in my office. Would I see the surgical successes? Why would I ever see the successes from surgery? Those people would have no reason for coming to me and seeking my help for that same successful health care resolution. So when clients ask if I would recommend surgery, I am tainted by the countless cases over the thirteen years in practice of surgical failures. Like wise if the patient found resolution using physical therapy or any other medical approach, I would not see them in my office for those same health concerns. So I have been biased because of the medical failures I have seen over thirteen years. Now lets put the shoe on the other foot. Why would a surgeon see the chiropractic patient who had successful resolution to their health care concern? The surgeon's clientele are those people who have been unsuccessful at other resolutions. True I am talking in generalities, some people use medical intervention as the first step and some people use chiropractic care as the first step to help them with their health care concerns, but at least over sixty percent of my clientele had medical intervention failures. In short, if the patient has sought out resolution for difficult cases, the medical, chiropractic or any other practitioner has seen the patient who had failure with the other practitioners. So each profession will be biased by their past experience. If you have ever seen my right hand and the surgical failure you would know why I personally can not recommend surgery. I am personally biased especially when I experienced the same type of injury on my left hand, sought chiropractic therapy and found success with it.
S0 what is the resolution to the bias from each practitioner. We doctors need to:
- recognize that we are not the 'cure all' for everybody.
- learn and perform our healing art form very well
- keep an open mind to alternatives
- shelf our ego and place the over all health of our clientele above everything else
- continue to advance the science around our healing art
- inform our clientele about those things we know and not about our conjecture
- recognize that not everybody is the same and can not be treated the sam