How has technology changed the way you practice chiropractic care?

Question

Dr. Gabrielle Manto, DC · Answer

How has technology changed the way you practice chiropractic care? So honestly, I haven't practiced any other way but with technology coming out of school. So in our office, we use thermography. So we're looking at temperature balance in the spine. We're looking at surface electromyography. So we're looking at the tone of our muscles or the tone of our nervous system. So high tone versus low tone. And then my favorite, which is heart rate variability or HRV. And so all these together gives us an objective view into exactly what's going on so that we are able to, one, care plan accordingly, use the best technique for our practice members or clients so that they can ultimately get the results that they want and help them reach their goals faster and more efficient. So if anything, it's made me a better clinician. I think all chiropractors should use technology because it gives us, again, that data, that objective data that you're able to track over time to figure out what technique is best for your practice member or client, and then also to give best care recommendations too. I personally think that using data helps us to be more evidence-based, that we're able to track. That's just my opinion. Again, back to the technique piece. There's so many techniques within chiropractic care. So I think instead of guessing when it comes to your health, it should be tracked objectively and then using, obviously, subjective measures as well. So it has drastically changed and has really drastically changed the entire profession of chiropractors as well.

Dr. Lisa Goodman, DC · Answer

So this is also a cool question. How has technology changed the way you practice chiropractic care? Well, one thing that I also love about what we do is we use our hands. We don't need pretty much anything else. We need our brains and our hands. And so if there's a power outage at my office and we can't take notes, we can still do our job. We can do our notes later. So in that way, fundamentally, technology hasn't changed the way that we do our jobs. And I sort of love that. We aren't relying on our devices. We're not spending all day in front of a computer. But that said, there are some technological advances that have made our job a lot more interesting and probably a little bit more efficient in terms of dictating notes or taking notes in terms of testing, using different technologies to assess for insoles or for other type of orthoses that patients may need. And then with treatment options, laser technology, electromagnetic, different types of light therapies and things like that have changed a lot. And taping, advances and all of those things have changed our treatment options in addition to sort of our typical chiropractic adjustments that we use our hands for. So I actually love the fact that we've got really old school basic job description with our hands and our minds and that we get to implement new technology as it comes about.

Nicky Kirk, DC, MS · Answer

Prior to implementing technology in any practice, in any environment, you have to first of all understand what it is that you're selecting technology for, because technology should be something which either allows you to get better results or allows you to achieve things at a quicker speed, make your life easier, not more complex. What typically happens with technology is individuals get very caught up in the bells and whistles and the flashy lights, which causes them to probably overspend on items which don't actually add a lot of value to the patient experience or indeed to the doctor's job. So, largely, I would say that the biggest technological change has probably been electronic health records in my time, which in principle should have been something which made my job easier to document more accurately and more quickly, but in reality it has had the effect of dictating a lot of time being spent documenting and navigating a fairly complex system.

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"How has technology changed the way you practice chiropractic care?"