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.