Dr. Gordon Hasick

Questions and Answers with NUCCA Director Dr. Gordon Hasick.

Q: What does the Small Steps program do for NUCCA research?

A: What Small Steps does for research is quite significant!

Last year we were able to raise enough money to activate a $50,000 matching grant from the Tao Foundation in Calgary. This money was sufficient to help fund the Phase Contrast Study. This initial money was important to activate further support of three other organizations that came in for the balance of the funding.

For other supporters and foundations, it is important for them to know that we come to the table with a certain amount of financial resources to fund our projects. We need to demonstrate this capability first before others are willing to invest in our programs. One of the corporate sponsors sent us a cheque for $25,000 and it was listed as “an investment”. I look at the money we raise as an investment in our future.

Q: How have you initiated the program in your office?

A: When I initiated the Small Steps Program in our office last year, for me it wasn’t about asking for something that directly influenced me personally. It was an invitation to support our work as a whole.

After 30+ years of being involved with the NUCCA work, I have a deep respect and appreciation for the power of correcting the Atlas Subluxation Complex. A great gift to me was the opportunity to study and learn from Dr. Gregory. He is still my mentor through the teaching and writings he has left for me and others. I went through the certification process with him and look back now and see the depth of wisdom that he shared. It has taken many years to fully appreciate this gift.

Thirty years into practice and I continue to find it even more of a privilege to be able to take care of people by attending to the Atlas Subluxation Complex. The miraculous changes I have seen for many people, including my own life, have profoundly influenced this deep sense of appreciation. Asking for money to support our research that will help us better understand the mechanism and physiological benefits of the NUCCA work are of great value to me.

Initiating the program in our office became simple. There is a small office poster we created (that is available online at the NUCCA website under downloads) and I put a copy of this poster in every room. When my patients are brought back to wait, the staff would simply ask them to review this annual fundraising campaign. After we were done with their clinic visit, they would check out at the front desk where the staff would simply ask if they would like to make a donation to research.

For many patients, when asked whether they would like to donate to research, broke into an extensive conversation about how it had saved their life. The whole waiting room got to benefit from the conversation and testimonial of how important their care was.

Q: What good things have developed from this program in your office, and others?

A: Perhaps the greatest benefit of the Small Steps Program was experienced in these conversations that took place in the practice!

This seemed to breed a real strong energy within the practice for the month that we ran the program. My stats revealed that it was one of our busiest months of the year! I attribute that increase in activity to the increased energy and the positive conversations that the patients, staff and I were all having.

I believe that to be successful at fundraising, one has to have their heart and commitment attached to whatever cause they are fundraising for. For me, my heart is in this work and it is easy to get behind the request.

I have been very surprised by the responses from people in my practice. Some patients give $5, but that $5 was like $5000 for them. As a result of the conversations during the program last year, one of my patients has made an annual commitment of $5000 and wants to make it an ongoing relationship, not just a one-time event. Other patients would give $50, $100, $500 or even $1000. You never really know what some people are willing to support until an invitation is extended to them.

One of the best things that has happened from running this program in our office is the greater awareness and gratitude for the work that we do. The difference that it makes in so many peoples lives is profoundly seen in the stories and conversations that take place around the research fundraising campaign. I really got that my staff, my patients and myself are deeply committed to insuring that future generations continue to benefit from this amazing work.

One of the greatest challenges in this fundraising process is to overcome is the hesitancy to ask for help. Patients come to us every day asking for help and we are more than willing to offer that support through the care we provide. In turn, we might ask them for help and support in a way that will help sustain our work for the future generations.

Dr. Gregory left us a great legacy and one that deserves ongoing respect and support. I encourage everyone to be involved in the small steps program and to give it a try to see what is possible for your office. The energy, the conversations, the intent, may surprise you.

Please take time to participate.

Thanks to Dr. Gordon Hasick, for taking time out of his busy schedule to tell us why he is so passionate about the Small Steps to Success Program.

NUCCA’s Practice Based Research Initiative is now active. This project is co-chaired by Drs. Reney and Scholten and much work has been put into creating a user friendly site for you and your patients so that you can easily participate in clinical research from wherever you are. Start by using this website to source your clinical intake forms and help strengthen our position on NUCCA care while improving an understanding of what happens in NUCCA practices.

This is just Phase 1 of the project and if the NUCCA membership participation is strong, we will be able to take this study into its next phases and likely answer many of the questions you may have had about patient responses to NUCCA. The stronger the number of participants, the stronger case we can make relative to securing future funding as well as increasing the quality of information we will have about the benefits our procedure brings to patient communities. Our world needs NUCCA and your organization needs you to take part in creating the evidence as to why we know that to be true.

Try the site by visiting www.NUCCAforms.com and choose ’test clinic’. If you use your real name, you will be sent the report that is generated when a patient visits the site and fills out the questionnaire. Please keep in mind that this is a patient oriented site. Each patient will have his/her own user name and password.

The Supine leg Check (SLC) Data Collection Pilot was successfully conducted at Life Chiropractic College West (LCCW) on May 22, 2010…

The pilot study data handling protocol proved to be sound assuring that the larger Leg Check study will have quality data for analysis. The ability to maintain data integrity ensuring the collection of high quality secure data establishes a standard for NUCCA research which is critical to results as well as review by important funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health. The data analysis is ongoing with a post study report to be submitted to the UCRF Board of Directors outlining the results and shortly thereafter, and a manuscript submission to an indexed peer reviewed publication to follow.

To help you better understand the pilot program, UCRF has published this handy flow-chart to see how the data collection has progressed.

What does it mean? The supine leg check pilot program helps future UCRF research to be as effective and accurate as possible when it comes to collecting quality data when it matters most: when our hard earned research dollars are being spent in actual research trials.

A supine leg let check pilot program is one way that UCRF is ensuring that research donations by NUCCA members and the public are spent wisely.

 Three grant submissions are to:

1. Obtain funding for a data center linked intimately with an electronic health record,

2. Develop infrastructure conducting Upper Cervical Chiropractic clinical translational research,

3. Build out available empty shell space facilities at LCCW to conduct research.

The final proposal, due July 17, 2009, is now under development, requesting 10 million dollars to establish an Upper Cervical Research Institute, a home specifically for Upper Cervical Chiropractic Research.  Projects based on previous NUCCA collaborative investigation in hypertension and changes in cerebral blood flow following an Atlas correction provide impetus in obtaining funds to continue.  Without funding the research stops.