Confessions of a Quackbuster

This blog deals with healthcare consumer protection, and is therefore about quackery, healthfraud, chiropractic, and other forms of so-Called "Alternative" Medicine (sCAM).

Sunday, November 21, 2004

ProAdjuster - chiropractic tool

Here's a quick analysis of the "Guided Tour" at ProAdjuster. Take the tour yourself.


1. Chiropractic

* Comment: Of course. Do you know of any other profess... (oops!...I mean business...) that makes up this kind of stuff AND then openly sells the brainwashing tools to other chiros?

2. Expansion: "The average practice expands 27% in the first 12 weeks."

* Comment: Pure practice building. Nothing about getting people well, but only about making more people think they're getting well.

3. Retention: "The average improvement in retention is 30% in 12 weeks."

* Comment: Rather nonsensical. Why retain people in treatment, if they are getting better faster? They should be discharged faster. But "wellness" care is all about getting asymptomatic people to fear impending illness if they miss their appointments. Such patients become good compliers. The PVA (patient visit average) of such chiros is quite high, while the ethical chiros have a low PVA. They get their patients better faster, and don't retain them.


Report of findings:

* "People relate the progress of their care with symptoms."

* "Unmatched patient compliance beyond symptoms."



Translation:

* "Report of findings" = a brainwashing tool."

* Patient compliance" = faithful adherance to *all* chiro recommendations, regardless of how ridiculous or inconvenient

* "Beyond symptoms" = so-called "wellness" care, continuing treatment in the absence of symtoms.


Intended purpose:

Thus we see that the intended purpose of the "report of findings" is to brainwash people into *not* relating "the progress of their care with their symptoms", but with the claims made by their chiropractor. They are then brainwashed into believing that they should continue their care, even in the absence of symptoms. No wonder many insurance companies specifically exclude "wellness" "maintenance" care from coverage. How do these chiros then get payment? They transform their practices into cash practices, which are gradually becoming the norm in chiropractic. In fact, a cash practice is often a quack practice. It's a red flag. Beware!