New York State Board for Chiropractic
Education Day
10/26/00

On October 26, 2000, the New York State Board for Chiropractic conducted a day of training at the New York City Office of Professional Discipline for regular and extended members of the Board and OP staff in two areas of regulatory activity: discipline and diversity. The closed meeting was attended by all members of the Board, and various OP managers and staff.

• Professional Discipline. Dr. Benjamin Bartolotto, D.C., Chair of the Discipline Committee, conducted the morning session, which covered:
  
  
  • Discipline Training Videotape -- Cynthia Laks, Office of Professional Responsibility, showed OP's discipline training videotape and thanked the members for their contribution.
    
    
  • Harold Tobman, Office of Professional Discipline, presented data on complaints and Board of Regents disciplinary actions in chiropractic to assist the Board in focusing public information efforts to support good practice and prevent misconduct.
    
    
  • Dr. Bartolotto presented hypothetical scenarios of misconduct complaints to elicit comments from the audience on various aspects of evaluating a case. Focus was on the critical and necessary elements for conducting evaluations of moral character and misconduct cases.

OUTCOME -- This session stimulated Board action at its open meeting the following day to:

1. develop guidelines to assist in recommending charges and penalties, and
2. to draft "Practice Alerts" to focus the attention of licensees on areas of practice that attract greater probabilities of complaints and misconduct actions.

• Diversity. Mr. Vernon Alleyne, Chair of the Diversity Committee, led discussion focusing on efforts and strategies to achieve representative diversity in the chiropractic profession for patients served as well as practitioners.
  
  
  • Norman Cohen, Executive Secretary, presented some exercises to define the elements and objectives of the Board's diversity efforts focusing on inclusion strategies.
    
    
  • Mr. Alleyne then presented strategies for enhancing diversity, including a campaign to inform undergraduate programs of the admission requirements for chiropractic college, to arrange for on-going educational activities, to establish on-going pro bono clinics within community organization facilities, to establish a speakers' bureau, to provide "shadowing" experiences, to participate in school fairs and provide classroom lectures.

OUTCOME -- This session stimulated Board action at its open meeting the following day to adopt the strategies and formalize them into actions.