In 2008, the Chiropractors Registration Board of Victoria drafted guidelines for the chiropractic care of children. This is the response delivered to the board by ICPA Executive Director, Dr. Jeanne Ohm and ICPA Research Director, Dr. Joel Alcantara.
To the Chiropractors Registration Board of Victoria:
The Chiropractors Registration Board of Victoria (“The Board”) is to be commended in their efforts and attempts at the creation and implementation of practice guidelines. Of particular interest was the June 2008 website release by The Board of the document entitled, “Draft Standards of Practice Guidelines: Chiropractic Care of Children” and requests for “any comments or suggestions about the content of any of these documents. “
Defined by the Institute of Medicine, clinical practice guidelines are “systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances.” It is commonly believed that practice guidelines can improve the quality, appropriateness, and cost-effectiveness of health care interventions and provide valuable educational tool for clinicians, future clinicians and the general public.
On behalf of its member practitioners in Australia (particularly in Victoria) and in the interest of pediatric chiropractic, the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association is providing The Board its comments as they pertain to the chiropractic care of children. As written, the Guidelines are unacceptable for release based on a validated and internationally accepted tool for assessing the quality of guidelines.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for further clarification as we want to facilitate a quality pediatric chiropractic guideline for our members.
— Jeanne Ohm, DC, Executive Director and Joel Alcantara, DC, Research Director of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA)
