Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor

Editor’s Note: July/August 2007

By David Stubbs   

Features Education Profession

London was also the setting for the pre-screening of Michael Moore’s
new movie, Sicko, which examines the urgency of the health-care crisis
in the United States, comparing it most unfavourably with medicare
systems in Canada, Britain, France, and Cuba.

Dr. Herbert Lee provided academic instruction to thousands of Canadian chiropractors. Actively present at the birth of the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in 1945, Dr. Lee is a precious living link to the past …  and he still has some advice for you.

We are also pleased to include commentary from two prominent chiropractic leaders, Drs. Stan Gorchynski and Keith Thomson.

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In London, Ontario, Dr. Laina Shulman describes her backstage experience with Dr. Deepak Chopra whose message, she observes, moves far “beyond the paradigm of ‘fixing’ the body with drugs and surgery.”

London was also the setting for the pre-screening of Michael Moore’s new movie, Sicko, which examines the urgency of the health-care crisis in the United States, comparing it most unfavourably with medicare systems in Canada, Britain, France, and Cuba. Taking some journalist heat for playing fast and loose with the facts and portraying Canada’s government-funded health care as wonderful, Moore told CBC Radio: “My job is to show that Canadians not so much have the best health-care system in the world, which it isn’t, but rather that Canadians have a core value belief that says, we’re all Canadians, we’re all in the same boat, we sink or swim together and we have to take care of each other.”

More than 7,000 Canadian doctors, including a sizable number of chiropractors, will be surprised to find that they have been anonymously rated on a controversial California website, RateMDs.com (“Changing the Way the World Looks at Medicine”).

Apparently, anyone can grade your services according to punctuality, helpfulness and knowledge, and then add their comments. The result is an overall rating out of 5, along with an accompanying smiley, neutral or frowning face.

Though the Canadian Medical Protective Association, representing 71,000 MDs, has demanded that potentially defamatory statements be removed, the website’s co-founder John Swapceinski defiantly told CTV News, “people have a right to express their opinion and not to have their free speech stifled by threats from medical associations.”

On a positive note, my own chiropractor did score a perfect 5 in his one and only rating. According to the unnamed assessor, he is “very helpful and concerned for patients’ well-being” and has a “hands-on approach to resolving issues.” Indeed, folks keep coming back for the quiet, intuitive and compassionate application of his considerable skills.

As I am wishing to pursue some personal projects, this is my last issue of Canadian Chiropractor magazine. Please join me in welcoming the new editor, Maria DiDanieli, who will introduce herself to the readership next month. Though it has been a pleasure serving you, in the words of Robert Frost: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep ….”

There is much work yet to be done. Along the way, please be as good to each other as I know you are to your patients.•


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