Research at Palmer College of Chiropractic
Drs. Steve and Cindy went to school at Palmer College of Chiropractic.
Research Efforts
Palmer is highly committed to a strong and ongoing research program. The Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research (PCCR) was created in July 1995 to combine the resources of Palmer College of Chiropractic, Davenport, Iowa, and Palmer College of Chiropractic West in San Jose, California. This combination of people and physical facilities has given the Center more flexibility and strength than if it were located at only one of the Palmer colleges. The newest addition to PCCR is Palmer Florida, located in Port Orange.
PCCR has 14 full-time and 8 associate faculty in addition to 19 technical and administrative staff members, including research assistants. William Meeker, D.C., M.P.H., is Vice President forResearch. At Palmer-West, Robert Cooperstein, M.A., D.C., is Director of Technique & Research. Donald Dishman, D.C., MS.c., D.I.B.C.N., is Interim Director of Research in Florida.
PCCR is the largest research effort at a chiropractic college in the world. It is supported by grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research and other agencies. These funds support programs of Clinical Trials and Outcomes Research, Experimental Biomechanics and Neurosciences Research, Health Services and Policy Research, Educational Research, and programs to provide research training to aspiring chiropractic investigators.
The Consortial Center for Chiropractic Research (CCCR) was established in 1997 through a grant from NIH, and established PCCR as the first chiropractic institution to receive federal funding to create such a Center. The CCCR has been focused on clinical and technical support to chiropractic investigators, the development of research projects and building an infrastructure to support chiropractic research.
In 2000, federal funding led to substantial remodeling of the Research Center, the renovation and expansion of the bioengineering, neuroscience, anatomy and physiology laboratories and afforded opportunities for trainees to learn more about disease mechanisms and clinical physiology. The Research Clinic tripled in size to include rooms for research interviews, physical therapy, clinical kinesiological studies and radiography and to accommodate large-scale research studies. In addition, an integrated computerized clinical record-keeping system coordinated by PCCR's Office of Data Management provided the ability to manage randomized trials, pilot studies, and case studies. This teaching and learning environment offered participants their own workspace in the building in proximity to their major interests and faculty supervisors in the three floors of fully equipped seminar/conference rooms.
The most recent award to PCCR was in the fall of 2003, from the NIH, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCCAM), to create the Center for the Study of Mechanisms and Effects of Chiropractic Adjustments in collaboration with National University of Health Sciences, Kansas State University, State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook and The University of Iowa. The aim of the center is to study spinal manipulation and adjustments and their physiological and biomechanical mechanisms.