Advancing Chiropractic Care Worldwide: Dr. Richard Brown’s Vision

Uncover the future of chiropractic care with Dr. Richard Brown, the Secretary General of the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC), as he shares transformative insights on our latest episode recorded live at the Parker Seminar in Las Vegas. With 96 member countries, the WFC is on a mission to make evidence-based, interprofessional, and collaborative chiropractic care accessible to people of all ages globally. Dr. Brown provides an enlightening update on the WFC's initiatives and its integral role in promoting chiropractic integration within health systems worldwide.

Dive into the WFC's enduring partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) that has been fostering global chiropractic advancements since 1997. Dr. Brown elaborates on the collaborative projects with various WHO units and the significant impact of their official relations. Plus, don't miss out on details about the upcoming educational conference in Kuala Lumpur, a first in the Asian region, which promises to be a landmark event for the chiropractic community. Join us for an episode filled with valuable perspectives and the latest developments that are shaping the future of chiropractic care.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hello, I'm Dr Arlon Swir, the chairman and co-founder of Activator Methods International. Welcome to Activate your Practice podcast, and today we're coming to you from Las Vegas, Nevada, and we're at the Parker Seminar, so which gave us an opportunity to have people on the podcast that we normally would not get. Today I have Dr Richard Brown, the Secretary General of the World Federation of Chiropractic, and so welcome, Richard.

Speaker 2: 0:31

Arlan, it's lovely to be here and thank you for inviting me along.

Speaker 1: 0:34

Well, I wanted to have you bring the profession up to date on what's happening in the World Federation today. What's the big? I guess the agenda.

Speaker 2: 0:45

What's happening in the World Federation today? What's the big, I guess, the agenda? Well, there's always something happening. Alan, with the World Federation of Chiropractic, we were established in 1988. So we're now in our 36th year of being established and I had the privilege of taking over as Secretary General in 2015. And it's been a real exciting period of time in our development.

Speaker 2: 1:08

We now have 96 member countries who are members of the World Federation of Chiropractic, and it's important, when I talk about the WFC and we talk about members, that we're talking about national associations of chiropractors as opposed to individual members. We have individual supporters, we have partner organizations, just like Activator, but our members, our voting members, are national associations of chiropractors. So we have a vision, we have a mission, have a mission. Our vision as the WFC is a world where all people of all ages, in all nations, have access to evidence-based, people-centered, interprofessional, collaborative chiropractic, so that populations can thrive and reach their full potential. And how do we do that? Well, our mission is to advance awareness, utilization and integration of chiropractic internationally utilization and integration of chiropractic internationally. Basically, what we want is more people to know about chiropractic, more people to use chiropractic and for chiropractic to be incorporated into health systems, so it's a really exciting time for us.

Speaker 1: 2:16

I remember being in Switzerland and going to the first World Health Organization meeting, which was quite a thing, at least for me. And so how is WFC working with WHO now?

Speaker 2: 2:30

Well again, we've been in official relations with WHO since 1997. And it's not something we take lightly. There are only 200 organizations that are in official relations with WHO, so we are accountable. We have to develop a plan with WHO every year that talks about what we're going to be doing. So we've been working with the units of healthy aging, of disability and rehabilitation of the traditional and complementary and integrative medicine, which is part of the integrated services provision at WHO medicine, which is part of the integrated services provision at WHO. We work with Molly Marie Robinson-Nickel, who is a chiropractor actually, who went and did a fellowship at WHO and now she's the unit head for process efficiency at WHO. So I go to Geneva usually a couple of times a year and we participate at the meetings, particularly at the World Health Assembly.

Speaker 1: 3:23

I know education is something you're passionate about. You know we've Activator has sponsored the WFC educational meeting for several years and last year was held at Logan University and I think it's going to be in Kuala Lumpur.

Speaker 2: 3:40

Is that correct? This will be the first time that the education conference has taken place in our Asian region, and the International Medical University in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia is really a powerhouse and it's where we've seen tremendous growth, so we're delighted to be hosting our meeting in October in Malaysia for the first time.

Speaker 1: 4:05

Well, activator is sponsoring it, so we may be in Kuala Lumpur, and I just think it puts the whole world together and that's the job that you've been doing, and that's a tough job because there's a lot of factions.

Speaker 2: 4:21

Well, we have to be the glue, arlan. And what I say about the WFC is we are for the many, not for the few. So we can't just be an elite organization for very few members. We have to listen, recognize, understand chiropractic in all its forms around the world and listen with respect and have dialogue. So it's really important that we understand that chiropractic is very broad in its provision. It's really important that we understand that chiropractic is very broad in its provision. It's broad in the way that chiropractors individually practice and it also depends on the social determinants of health in any given country, because we know that the political landscape varies from one country to another.

Speaker 1: 5:01

I've read that the WFC is currently focused on issues of patient safety. Would you tell me a little bit about that?

Speaker 2: 5:08

Well, we're really excited about this initiative and you know it's important to understand that when we focus on issues of patient safety, that does not inherently mean, oh, we think we're a dangerous profession, so we have to. You know, we have to worry about adverse events. It's not that at all. Every responsible healthcare profession on the planet has to be focused on issues of patient safety, because that is what being a responsible profession, a health professional, is all about. So we need to understand what's happening. We need to understand from experiences what's happening, but we also need to be proactive, because if we understand things that could happen, we can then be proactive about ways in which we can deliver the safest, most effective care for the widest range of people protects the doctor, because we've got, you know, different forces and stuff like that that our biomechanical engineers have spent a lot of hours on making sure that it's a correct force and so forth.

Speaker 1: 6:17

And I'm sure you're an attorney and you defended us in a couple instances and I'm sure you think the more data you can have, the better.

Speaker 2: 6:24

Well, everything really points to data. If you don't bring the data, it's not worth turning up at the table. And so you know we really appreciate the work that Activator has done over the years to qualify and quantify the work that it's done, because it's only by understanding the forces involved, the direction forces involved, the vectors and all the other factors that I know that you have very much invested in over the years, arlan, it's really critical that we have that data to be able to talk to issues if and when they should occur.

Speaker 1: 6:57

What do you think the biggest challenge is today for chiropractic?

Speaker 2: 7:02

Well, do you know, I think the biggest challenge that we face is around unsubstantiated claims. Unsubstantiated claims of effectiveness, wildly exaggerated claims that really are difficult to quantify. You talk about evidence. If you go somewhere and you make a claim, you have to be sure that it's backed by appropriate evidence, that it's backed by appropriate evidence. And one of the things that I think damages our profession at times is where unsubstantiated claims are made about the effectiveness of treatment. We know that miracles happen. We've all seen them. You've been in practice for so many years. I was in practice for 25 years. We all see the most amazing things happen in practice, but can we talk about those things as if they are something that we can predict will happen every time? Of course not. So we need to be cautious about what we say when we make claims and make sure we're judicious about those claims.

Speaker 1: 8:01

You know, every day we read the paper about the expanding geriatric population. I think it says that by 2030, over half the people in the United States will be over 65. And, being a geriatric patient myself, I am attuned to that. And so what can we do to contribute to the decade of healthy aging?

Speaker 2: 8:25

Well, as you say, it's the decade of healthy aging. We're right in it now, Arlan, and you will know from some of the global burden of disease studies that have been published year on year that consistently, every single time, low back pain is the biggest single cause of years live with disability on the planet. We also know that lifespan is not the same as healthspan. We know that people are living longer In almost every country in the 196 UN countries. People are living longer. Because of technology, because of innovation, because of public health measures. People are living longer, but we know that they're not necessarily living healthier and low back pain is one of the biggest causes of disability in the older population. And as chiropractors, we have an amazing opportunity to be able to help older people live healthier, happier and more active lives.

Speaker 1: 9:18

And I think the other word is mobility for people to get around on their own two feet. You know, my wife had a hip surgery here. She tore a ligament in the hip. She's been on a walker now for over four months and it really brought something to me about taking care of yourself as you age so you can be mobile.

Speaker 2: 9:38

You're absolutely right and you know when I talk to students and I talk to groups about why it's so important that chiropractors engage in the treatment of the aging population, it's because the one thing that older people fear more than anything else is isolation and loneliness, and these two factors kill. They kill people, because the impact that isolation and loneliness has people, because the impact that isolation and loneliness has the inability to get out and socialize with friends, meet family, meet their grandchildren, be with their grandchildren, interact, not being able to do that has such a profound psychological effect on older people. This is why it's so, so important that I think we maybe shift our focus as chiropractors and look at the aging population and look at the aging population and look at the profound effect that we can have, Because if we're getting people moving, if we're getting people functioning because we've got to face it the older people care less about having a few aches and pains than they do about being able to function. It's all about functioning and that's what the chiropractic profession has focused on for over 125 years.

Speaker 2: 10:47

We just haven't told the story. We haven't told the story. We need to get the word out there. We need to make sure that we get involved at all levels of healthcare, and this is what I mean about integrated. We want chiropractors to become members of every person's healthcare team. Are we the whole solution to everything? No, of course we're not. But we can be a really critical part in helping mobility, and if we can get people mobile, it means they can return to work, they can return to plays, they can do things around the house, they can interact and they can socialize so critical.

Speaker 1: 11:19

Finally, what does the hashtag be? Epic mean.

Speaker 2: 11:24

Well, I touched on epic right at the very outset when I talked about our vision, and people who are familiar with the WFC will have seen the be epic hashtag. Why do we focus on be epic? Well, the letters of epic, e-p-i-c stand for evidence-based, people-centered, interprofessional and collaborative. People-centered, interprofessional and collaborative, and we think that those pillars are fundamental to chiropractic globally. We feel that it's not something that is driven by chiropractic philosophy or training or teaching. We feel that here we are in 2024, every single chiropractor on the planet can be epic by understanding the three pillars of evidence-based practice, which is science and clinical expertise and patient needs. People-centered, because patients have to be at the heart of everything we do. Interprofessional, because we're part of a team, we're not just on our own, we can't be isolated. And collaborative, because we need to collaborate with patients, families, carers and the community.

Speaker 1: 12:32

As I look around at the seminar here, there's a whole new type of practice starting and it's an interdisciplinary practice where there's an MD, a DC and a PT. And you know that 89% of people do not go to chiropractors. So look at what we have out there for a patient load and they don't go because they don't want their neck cracked. That's the number one thing. That's why we think Activator is so positioned for this new geriatric movement that we're going to see.

Speaker 2: 13:07

Well, I talked about the P of EPIC, which is patient-centered care. I also talked about evidence-based care, which is about listening to the patients that we serve, their needs, their expectations, their preferences. Shared decision-making is about deciding on a program of care by discussing needs and preferences with patients and understanding where they're coming from and addressing things that they're worried about and adapting our treatment to what they expect and what they want. If we listen to patients, they will help to drive our success in the future.

Speaker 1: 13:42

I can't thank you enough because you get around the world, and so this podcast is very valuable for people that don't get around the world to see what's happening, and so, dr Richard Brown, the Secretary General of the World Health Federation, of World Federation of Chiropractic, thank you for being on the podcast. It was just a really great time.

Speaker 2: 14:04

Thank you for having me on and thank you for all you do in your untiring service to the profession. Thank you.