Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:

There is an inaccuracy in the otherwise interesting and informative paper by Passmore, Riva and Goldsmith.¹ In their paper, which discusses the creation of a chiropractic working group at McMaster University, the authors make the following statement: “Within chiropractic educational facilities there are no formal programs cultivating chiropractic clinician researcher development” and they cite a 2006 paper by Haas and colleagues.² This is factually incorrect. For the past 5 years Palmer College of Chiropractic has offered a master’s of science degree in clinical research through the Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research. This program, which was initially funded as part of K30 award from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the US National Institutes of Health, provides training in clinical research to the graduate fellows who matriculate into the program. Those fellows are, without exception, chiropractors who wish to obtain additional training in order to develop a career that involves the conduct of clinical research. Our fellows have included both new graduate chiropractors and those with many years of practice experience, as well as two dual degree participants (MD/DC and DC/PhD), as well as several faculty clinicians at Palmer College of Chiropractic. Information about the program can be seen at the program website: http://www.palmer.edu/pcc_current2.aspx?id=5290. I simply wish to set the record straight on this issue, but commend the authors for their informative work, which bodes well for the future of chiropractic research and education.