When They Know What We Know

I have heard it time and time again at chiropractic conferences and lectures, "if they knew what we knew they would do what we do."

I have heard it time and time again at chiropractic conferences and lectures, “if they knew what we knew they would do what we do.”

Thanks to the internet, never before in our 105+ year history has the chiropractic profession had a better opportunity to teach what it is that we know.

If your thinking for a moment that Jane Q. Public is not interested, take a look at this headline from CNET news.com authored by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania:

“Consider it a sign of the times: More consumers use the Internet to search for health care information than they do to search for pornography.”

Who are these users and what information are they looking for?
According to the article on CNET, they are college educated, married, Caucasian women and they are looking for information on topics ranging from nutrition to disease, and health & fitness to pharmaceuticals.

Have you read the book “the millionaire next door”?
Weren’t the most likely group to be going to chiropractors college educated Caucasian women and weren’t those numbers expected to increase dramatically over the next few years?

Think about this for a moment, those of you that are seeing entire families for wellness care, who is the driving force behind the whole family coming in for care? What are you doing to better serve this group?

With so many people using the internet, the CNET article asks whether all this health information creates a different kind of consumer? While they are waiting for the results of studies we will focus on the statement, “if they knew what we knew they would do what we do.”

When was the last time someone came into your office because they wanted to be “more complete” or were looking to be “in a better state of health?” For more and more chiropractic offices, the answer is “this morning.” Why is that doctors? What is it they are looking for, is it symptom relief?

Do you remember the words of Dr. Ian Grassam stating that you own the keys to the kingdom? As a chiropractor, you own the chiropractic keys to the kingdom of absolute freedom and absolute health. The philosophy of chiropractic is so easy to understand and just makes so much sense to so many people. Tell them the truth about what you do, you can’t go wrong with that.

The article on CNET states that patients searching the Internet for health information are arriving at doctor’s offices “armed with information they have gleaned from the Web.” The article is talking about medical doctors and points out that as a result of all this info, many patients are walking away with a “lower evaluation of the doctor.”

I’ll put this part in bold for you, surveys are suggesting that in some cases patients say they are thinking about finding new health care providers because of that impression.

Who do you think those new health care providers are? This is the part that excites us most at Planet Chiropractic. Although we are an information portal for chiropractors, we get questions from “the folks” often. I love offering them our information on health care topics and have shared the following (some of which I learned from Dr. Chris Kent) with thousands.

When told not to see a chiropractor, always ask your medical doctor these six important questions:

1. Doctor, are you an expert on chiropractic?
2. Was training in chiropractic principles and techniques included in your medical school education?
3. Was chiropractic included in your residency training?
4. Have you ever practiced chiropractic?
5. In what states are you licensed to practice chiropractic?
6. What exam procedures are used to assess vertebral subluxation?

Question #7 may be to ask “are you even remotely qualified to give an opinion on chiropractic care” but by answering the six questions above, both parties already know the answer to that.

Here’s a question: What do you call a world that has an understanding of subluxation and chiropractic life philosophy?

Article Source:
CNET: On the Net, RX-rated beats X-rated