Parker College of Chiropractic will host its first annual Parker Gala on Friday, Jan. 16, 2009 during the Las Vegas Parker Seminar from 7:30 to 11 pm in the Las Vegas Hilton Barron Ballroom. Proceeds will benefit chiropractic research and the advancement of the profession. All seminar attendees, industry professionals, former speakers, presenters, sponsors, and exhibitors are invited to attend this special evening to support the profession and network with leaders in chiropractic.

The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has awarded a grant for $310,479 to the Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research (PCCR) to establish a practice-based research network to assess complementary and alternative medicine models of pain management. This is a collaborative research project, with Palmer sub-contracting for half of the grant amount ($155,239) to the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center for Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa.

The Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research (PCCR) was notified today that it has received an award to establish a four-year, multidisciplinary Developmental Center for Clinical and Translational Science in Chiropractic from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Everyone seems to be picking on the poor Food and Drug Administration (FDA) these days, but for vastly different reasons. To the hundreds of thousands of victims (including dead ones) of adverse prescription drug reactions each year, and their families, the FDA is failing to protect the public. These people believe the agency should spend more time and effort making sure drugs are safe and effective before approval. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical companies feel the FDA is a nuisance, way too fussy about drug safety details and terribly slow with approval.

News stories regarding Merck, the makers of Vioxx, began circulating midday April 15, with reports of manipulation of data and accusations of scientific fraud. By this morning, the inbox on my LG Voyager displaying several text messages from chiropractors throughout the United States (mostly east coast) sharing links to multiple websites and publications covering this topic.