Statement on Interprofessional Relations with Doctors of Chiropractic

The American College of Surgeons declares that, except as provided by law, there are no ethical or collective impediments to full professional association and cooperation between doctors of chiropractic and medical physicians. Individual choice by a medical physician voluntarily to associate professionally or otherwise cooperate with a doctor of chiropractic should be governed only by legal restrictions, if any, and by the individual medical physician's personal judgment as to what is in the best interest of a patient or patients.

Professional association and cooperation, as referred to above, includes, but is not limited to, referrals, consultations, group practice in partnerships, HMOs, PPOs, and other alternative health care delivery systems; the provision of treatment privileges and diagnostic services in or through hospital facilities; working with and cooperating with doctors of chiropractic in hospital settings where the hospital's governing board, acting in accordance with applicable law and that hospital's standards, elects to provide privileges or services to doctors of chiropractic; association and cooperation in hospital training programs for students in chiropractic colleges under suitable guidelines arrived at by the hospital and chiropractic college authorities; participation in student exchange programs between chiropractic and medical colleges; cooperation in research programs and the publication of research material in appropriate journals in accordance with established editorial policy of said journals; participation in health care seminars, health fairs or continuing educations programs; and any association or cooperation designed to foster better health care for patients of medical physicians, doctors of chiropractic, or both.

Reprinted from Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons
Vol. 72, No. 11, Page 10, November 1987