On January 27, 2005 after a bitter battle the Florida Board of 
Governors - who oversee the public colleges in Florida - voted down 
a proposed chiropractic school at Florida State University. Whether 
or not you supported the establishment of that school, there are 
some important lessons to be learned.
	
First, the allopathic medical profession has never understood or 
liked chiropractic and that has not changed. One had only to read the 
Florida papers to see that fact. Headlines and articles quoted 
members of the medical and associated scientific communities who 
referred to chiropractic as ³pseudo-science,² ³voodoo,² and even 
³deadly². What I have learned from these ignorant and vitriolic 
comments is that they donıt like us. Thatıs ok with me. Chiropractic 
was founded as a separate and distinct profession, and as such we 
have never needed their approval. What we need to do now is to stop 
seeking an approval that is never coming. 
	
I know many chiropractors and chiropractic students who feel that 
if we just adopt the allopathic language, i.e. manipulation instead of 
adjustment, diagnosis instead of analysis, or call ourselves by the 
oxymoronic title of chiropractic medicine, that we can get into their 
private club. Wake up. The FSU fight shows yet again the fallacy of 
that argument. Take heart because we are not alone. An acquaintance 
of mine, a board-certified osteopathic radiologist, was recently 
denied admission to a radiology fellowship at a prominent allopathic 
college in Philadelphia because ³the program only admits MDs owing 
to their superior qualifications².  If the DOıs  - who have played the 
³let us in the club² game with the MDıs for years - are still not in, 
we should realize that we have no chance at all. It is time that we 
proudly view ourselves as the separate and distinct profession that 
we were founded to be.
	
The second key lesson in the FSU debate was the need for more 
chiropractic research. Proponents of the school promised it would be 
³evidence based,² and that it would be a center for research. 
Opponents of the school said that chiropractic had no credible 
research to begin with, and that we were only seeking a school at 
FSU to provide a cloak of credibility for our disreputable profession. 
	
Evidence and research must proceed from a well-defined objective. 
Unfortunately, much of the evidence and research done under the 
banner of chiropractic has little or nothing to do with chiropractic. 
Many of the studies are done with an allopathic objective in mind. 
One of the frequent points of discussion in the FSU argument was 
whether the new college would teach ³subluxation theory². The 
opponents decried subluxation theory as unscientific and lacking in 
both evidence and research. The proponents ran for cover and tried to 
find alternate language, promising that only proven concepts would 
be taught. 

Since we do not as a profession support a secondary industry, as the 
MDıs do the drug industry, we will never have the nearly unlimited 
dollars for research that they enjoy. For that reason we must 
allocate our limited resources carefully. We should divorce 
ourselves from the allopathic research objective and focus instead 
on researching chiropractic. We should spend our time researching 
the nature and effects of the subluxation, the affect of the 
adjustment on physiology, and the comparison of the various 
techniques employed. Doing that will not convince the MDıs of our 
value, but it will give our profession the courage and ammunition to 
stand up against the inevitable attacks. Instead of trying to 
deconstruct the historic principles and practices of chiropractic in a 
vain attempt to gain medical acceptance, let us work to prove 
constructively what we already know to be true ­ subluxations exist 
and their correction positively benefits human function.
	
BJ once said, ³conflicts clarify². Perhaps this bitter conflict over 
the school at FSU will teach us some much needed lessons.

Dr. Ralph Davis is a 1986 graduate of Sherman College of Straight 
Chiropractic. He has taught at Sherman College, Pennsylvania 
College, and Palmer College of Chiropractic Florida. Dr. Davis is a 
member of the WCA and an Editorial Board member of the Journal of 
Vertebral Subluxation Research. He is currently in private practice 
in Tampa, Florida.