Thursday, January 06, 2005

More on FSU Chiropractic

I've found more information relating to the proposed FSU chiropractic school since I wrote my first post on the topic, and thought I'd share the wealth:
  • The St. Petersburg Times reports that the FSU faculty feel as though a decision has already been made regarding the chiropractic school, and that they have no say in the matter. The professors are also afraid of retaliation if they speak out against the school, which the school says is ridiculous, but the article reports that a state senator (Jim King) has made it clear that there likely will be some retaliation if the school is fought:
    "Legislators may ask FSU to cut millions from its budget next year to pay back the $9-million allocated last year for the chiropractic school. 'I would also suggest that (professors) evaluate with their department heads what kind of cuts there will have to be,' said King, R-Jacksonville. If professors derail the chiropractic school, he added, 'I think the Legislature would be angry.'"
    So by stopping the state from foolishly spending $9 million dollars a year to educate pseudo-doctors, the school will be financially punished, instead of, say, being given that $9 million a year to improve education in medical fields that have significantly more scientific support behind them.

  • FSUblius, a new anonymous blog dedicated to discussing academic programs (read: the chiropractic school) at FSU, has been posting on the chiropractic school possibility for a few weeks now.

  • University Diaries, another academic blogger, has apparently been following the story for some time as well.

  • PZ Myers at Pharyngula picked up my original post, and his readers left a slew of comments. There are a few too many anecdotes regarding chiropractic in the comments for my taste, but it's a good read.

  • The Two Percent Company and CodeBlueBlog picked up on the FSU Chiropractic story as well, and both provide excellent commentary on the situation. CodeBlueBlog in particular cites some interesting data:
    "Acute LBP is pain that has been present for three months or less. The list of treatments for it is very long. Most are claimed to have about a 90% success rate. However, most people with uncomplicated acute LBP get better within one month, and 90 % recover within three months. This is why so many treatments for LBP appear to work so well." (Mark Rosenthal)
  • A number of people have linked to Chirobase.org, a subsite of Quackwatch.org; both are excellent sites that skeptically discuss questionable medical practices. I linked to Chirobase in my original post about FSU for one point, but the sites are good enough to warrant links of their own.

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