• Council on Chiropractic Practice
• Evidence-Based Medicine
• Practice Guidelines as Topic

The Council on Chiropractic Practice (CCP) was formed in 1995 in Phoenix, Arizona. The first meeting was attended by an interdisciplinary assembly of distinguished chiropractors, medical physicians, basic scientists, attorneys, and consumer representatives. he CCP is registered as a non-profit organization, independent in its activities. Its mission is “To develop evidence-based guidelines, conduct research and perform other functions that will enhance the practice of chiropractic for the benefit of the consumer.” he present article describes the conception, methodology and outcome of the CCP’s endeavor to develop and produce practice guidelines which serve the needs of the consumer, and are consistent with “real world” chiropractic practice. In regard to the aspect of its mission concerning guidelines, the CCP Panel on Guideline Development has produced practice guidelines for the vertebral subluxation centered practice.  This process included the active participation of field doctors, consultants, seminar leaders, and technique experts. In addition, the Council Panel utilized the services of interdisciplinary experts from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), guidelines development, research design, literature review, law, clinical assessment, and clinical chiropractic.  The guidelines process involved six stages: (1) based on current information from the literature and expert opinions, a model of practice depicting safety and efficacy was developed, (2) a colloquium was held during which the Panel interviewed technique developers to ascertain the degree to which their procedures could be expressed in an evidenced-based format. Thirty five named chiropractic technique developers participated, either in person or through written submissions to the panel. The developers presented the best available evidence to substantiate protocols and assessment methods, (3) an “open forum” session was widely advertised and later convened to invite the insight and opinions of parties interested in the development of the guidelines, (4) after sorting and evaluating the evidence from literature review, technique forum, written comments, and open forum, the initial draft of the guidelines was prepared and distributed to the Panel; (5) the revised draft was reviewed by 195 peer reviewers in 12 countries; (6) after incorporation of the reviewers suggestions, the final draft was published in August, 1998.The purpose of the Clinical Practice Guideline is to provide the doctor of chiropractic with a readily interpretable compendium of recommendations and sub-recommendations based upon the best available evidence. It is a “dynamic” document subject to revision when justified by new information. It has not been designed to facilitate, nor replace clinical judgment.

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