Question
Dr. Leatherman,

I was reading your profile and you mentioned that you have experience in MUA and I am really interested in this as a future chiropractor. I am looking to attend Texas Chiropractic College and they have a program that provides certification in MUA. Now my question is can I have a career solely in MUA or would I also have to provide general chiropractic care. Also how is the lifestyle as a chiropractor and are you completely satisfied with being a chiropractor instead of going the route of becoming a medical doctor like I read in one of your previous answers. Thank You.  

Answer
Dear John,

Well, I think that TCC would be a fine choice for a chiropractic school, and I am aware of their MUA program.  

It is totally possible to have a career only in MUA, but unlikely.  Orthopedists have started to perform MUA's, and do not want to share the fee with you when they can do the proceedure themselves (although many times they do not perform spinal mua). Moreover, in many locales the medical doctors do not want you in their Operating Room.  Call it what you will, but there is still a large riff between the medical profession and the chiropractic profession...most of it is based on misunderstanding.

Political conflict within the chiropractic profession and continued dogmatic pracatices from within smaller groups of chiropractic, continues to hinder our perception by the public and the medical community.  Conversely, severely ignorant medical professionals...mostly old guys who badmouth our profession...continue to have influence over the younger more educated and progressive medical doctors.  The bottom line is that you will have an uphill battle.

I love chiropractic, and I love being able to help people all day long, but chiropractic still has its problems.  It is inherent that the chiropractic profession needs to drop old tenets of chiropractic as current research already validates our profession....we need to use medical terminology to explain ourselves, not old chiropractic lingo from the early 1900's.  Yes I beleive we need to honor chiropractic philosophy, but not at the risk of hindering progression.

If I could do it all over today, I would have completed medical school first, then gone to chiropractic school for the simple reason that I wouldn't have any obstacles in my way. Manual medicine/chiropractic continues to show great benefits to patients as well as reducing the overall health care costs, and MUA is just another avenue for producing incredible results in patients that are in too musch pain for general adjustments, frozed shoulder, and fibrous release processes.  I would like to perform more MUA procedures than I do, but the local hospital where I practice will not grant me privledges so I cannot admit patients...therefore, I just have one of the medical doctors admit the patient for me.  Then I can schedule  the procedure with that doctor present.  Yeah its a pain, but the patient still gets the benefit.

If you practic in a bigger city with less "good ole boy politics", and a more educated medial community, you will have greater success.  I have colleges in Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles that are performing MUA procedures multiple times a week without any problems.  In a smaller town, it will be better for you to find a surgical center for the MUA procedure...less red tape.  You will also need to establish a good working relationship with the anesthesiologists as they will be administering the meds, but this is not usually a problem.

Hope this helps John, I don't want to discourage you, but you need to have big shoulders if you want to do MUA.  I have pretty good relationships with the medical professionals in my town, but the hospital administrators don't care about the chiropractor, and many times they don't care about the medical doctor either.  You have your work cut out for you but this is attainable, you just have to be strong in your resolve, you have got to know your stuff...know it well, and be able to present the information to other professionals in a concise, professional yet scientific manner.  Good Luck!!

Respectfully,
Dr. J. Shawn Leatherman