The number of somatovisceral patients currently seen by chiropractors must be very close to an irreducible minimum. The health care establishment needs to be convinced that such elements as antibiotics, immunizations, and insulin are not really important parts of primary care. In some instances they may not be. Insulin, although it can be self-administered, is by dint of its association with diabetes a secondary health care issue. Without clinical research to demonstrate the effectiveness of care for specific conditions, neither MDs or DCs will be reimbursed for treating those condition.
Medical guidelines are no less uniform.
I would submit that it is largely a matter of chance as to what regimen a patient might undergo in many allopathic treatments, which is why they invented the Second Opinion. I would agree with Dr. Nelson by taking his last argument as an impetus to define a position in assessing the chiropractor's scope of practice. Additional elements should serve as superstructural features until they are sufficiently documented in the research literature to become universal standards of practice. In this manner, we must attempt to define a niche in any future health care system into which chiropractic intervention may realistically expand within the next 5-10 years. To deny this type of flexibility is to deny the patient of any benefits of any research which is conducted within any branch of health care.