Moving into interdisciplinary territory.
Just four years out of chiropractic college, Dr. Marco Lozej finds himself in the full-spectrum Health and Performance Centre, within an academic microenvironment of about 18,000 students and staff at the University of Guelph (U of G). In the heart of southwestern Ontario, the university is set in an urban population of approximately 100,000 people.
A 1997 U of G graduate in human kinetics, the young chiropractor focuses on injury prevention, assessment and treatment, performance improvement, and health promotion. His patients are generally the active type, often presenting with sports injuries; many are athletes, and some are referred by sports medicine physicians and by other practitioners in the wider community. Walk-in patients – some of them might even be in their 80s – arrive at the centre’s reception area where they may be directed to chiropractic or choose it from among the various disciplines. The other professionals are drawn from physiotherapy, sports medicine, massage therapy, and athletic therapy, and there are fitness consultants, registered dieticians and a pedorthist. Their patients share a common waiting room, rehabilitation area, modalities, and testing equipment.
The Health and Performance Centre was founded eight years ago to provide health care as well as the practicum venue for senior students from the human kinetics and biomechanical sciences departments.
Student Health Services, situated downstairs on the ground floor of the two-story building, is a source of orthopedic and mechanical referrals, but Lozej indicates that the preference has in the past often been for physiotherapy. Students and staff are entitled to a total of $600 in extended health-care benefits for chiropractic, naturopathy and physiotherapy.
There can be difficulties in interacting professionally and obstacles to creating a true team health-care environment, as well as an overlapping of the strengths of each discipline, but Lozej loves working as a chiropractor in this multidisciplinary setting. He notes that, in addition to the adjustment, superior diagnosis and unique palpation skills, complemented by a range of manual therapies, set chiropractic apart. A large room with two adjusting tables is his sole place of practice, where he also offers acupuncture, having been the first such practitioner on campus.
As well as delivering chiropractic treatments, Lozej oversees student volunteers who observe him, and, with instruction, offer hand-held massage and basic stretching techniques. They design and create research projects such as, for example, evidence-based posters on the ergonomics of seating. One of last year’s volunteers is now a student at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. Lozej is also assigned to supervise the study strategies of three varsity football players, and he is assistant coach for the women’s soccer team.
Attending sports medicine conferences when he can, Lozej says it is important to move into interdisciplinary territory in order to educate other health-care providers about what chiropractic can bring to the table.•
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