• Johnson CD
• Green BN

• American Medical Association / legislation and jurisprudence
• American Medical Association. Committee on Quackery
• Antitrust Laws
• Chiropractic / legislation and jurisprudence / United States
• Health Occupations / legislation and jurisprudence
• Open Access Document
• Wilk, Chester A.

Objective: This is the fourth article in a series that explores the historical events surrounding the Wilk v American Medical Association (AMA) lawsuit, in which the plaintiffs argued that the AMA, the American Hospital Association, and other medical specialty societies violated antitrust law by restraining chiropractors' business practices. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief review of the history of the origins of AMA's increased efforts to contain and eliminate the chiropractic profession and the development of the Chiropractic Committee, which would later become the AMA Committee on Quackery.

Methods: This historical research study used a phenomenological approach to qualitative inquiry into the conflict between regular medicine and chiropractic and the events before, during, and after a legal dispute at the time of modernization of the chiropractic profession. Our methods included obtaining primary and secondary data sources. The final narrative recount was developed into 8 articles following a successive timeline. This article is the fourth of the series that explores the origins of AMA's increased efforts to contain and eliminate the chiropractic profession.

Results: In the 1950s, the number of chiropractors grew in Iowa, and chiropractors were seeking equity with other health professions through legislation. In response, the Iowa State Medical Society created a Chiropractic Committee to contain chiropractic and prompted the creation of the “Iowa Plan” to contain and eliminate the chiropractic profession. The AMA leadership was enticed by the plan and hired the Iowa State Medical Society's legislative counsel, who structured the operation. The AMA adopted the Iowa Plan for nationwide implementation to eradicate chiropractic. The formation of the AMA's Committee on Chiropractic, which was later renamed the Committee on Quackery (CoQ), led overt and covert campaigns against chiropractic. Both national chiropractic associations were fully aware of many, but not all, of organized medicine's plans to restrain chiropractic.

Conclusion: By the 1960s, organized medicine heightened its efforts to contain and eliminate the chiropractic profession. The intensified campaign began in Iowa and was adopted by the AMA as a national campaign. Although the meetings of the AMA committees were not public, the war against chiropractic was distributed widely in lay publications, medical sources, and even chiropractic journals. Details about events would eventually be more fully revealed during the Wilk v AMA trials.

Author keywords: Health Occupations, Chiropractic, Medicine, Humanities, History, 20th Century, Antitrust Laws

Lawsuit discussed: Wilk et al v American Medical Association et al Nos. 87-2672 and 87-2777 (F. 2d 352 Court of Appeals 7th Circuit, April 25, 1990)

This abstract is reproduced with the permission of the publisher. Click on the above link for free full text. PubMed Record | PDF