By: Dr. Craig Revermann
From certificate #438 in 1900 to a unanimous Illinois House resolution: 100 years of ICS advocacy, courtroom victories, and unbroken leadership that built the profession we practice today.
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Transcript:
She walked out of the state office in Illinois, holding certificate number 438. She was the first chiropractor licensed in the United States of America, not the first in Illinois, the first anywhere. She was licensed under an Illinois law that had, for the first time in this country, put language on the books permitting the legal practice of chiropractic; Illinois did that before anyone else. 20 years later, in 1920, go ahead. 20 years later, in 1924, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled there was no distinction between chiropractors and medical doctors as to what they could treat; that ruling has never been overturned. So Illinois was ahead. Illinois has always been ahead. But being legal and being accepted are two different things.
On September 20th, 1926, seven chiropractic physicians filed a certificate of incorporation with the Illinois Secretary of State; they wrote down two purposes: further the interest of the chiropractic profession and promote scientific research along chiropractic lines. Advocacy and education in the founding document, year one. Seven doctors. That is how our society started, and 100 years later, that’s still the job. For most of the century that followed, the fight was not about scope; it was about survival.
The American Medical Association had stated a policy toward our profession: contain and eliminate. That was not a rumor; that was their language. An Illinois chiropractic physician named Chester Wilk decided to do something about it. In 1976, he filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the AMA, a practicing chiropractor from Chicago, taking on the most powerful organization in American medicine. It took 11 years. In 1987, in a federal courtroom in Chicago, the judge ruled the AMA had violated antitrust law and issued a permanent injunction. That means we all practice in the world a chiropractic. That means we all practice in the world a chiropractic physician in Illinois made possible.
That same year, Illinois did something else that mattered. The Medical Practice Act of 1987 codified chiropractic physicians as statutory physicians. Same act, the same law that licenses MDs and DOs. Illinois did not build us a side door. Illinois put us in the act. In 2003, the Illinois Supreme Court confirmed what that meant. The court held that the Medical Practice Act treats chiropractic physicians as equal, as full and equal members of the medical profession. Full and equal. That is our standard in this state, and it is not an accident.
Dr. Christine Becker, could you please stand. Recognize her. She was the society’s leadership that year. She took this chair, and she was the first woman, first woman to lead the Illinois Chiropractic Society. I think my battery’s dying, sorry. The first chiropractor licensed in America was a woman, and in 1904, 100 years later, so was the president of the ICS. In 2011, under the presidency of Dr. David Flatt, David’s in the room. Doc, can you stand up? In 2011, under the presidency of Dr. David Flatt, this society wrote the statutory definition of chiropractic physician that passed into law; the scope language governing our practices today was written by us. Now, not every win makes a history book.
In 2009, the lead attorney at the Illinois Department of Professional Regulations drafted a binding opinion: chiropractic physicians could not delegate patient, or excuse me, could not delegate patient care tasks to office staff. Not a bill, not a court case, one letter, and delegation in Illinois was over. But it was caught. We caught it. Asked the department to hold and change the law. Instead, Public Act 96-0618, our statutory right to delegate licensed and unlicensed personnel in our offices. Those of us with staff, we know exactly what this is worth. We do it every day. We delegate these tasks to our staff, and they help assist us in providing patient care. That same year, passed in assisted living, and our authority to sign sick rules for students and teachers; four public acts in one session.
But this society has never only been about the state house. Go back to that 1926 charter. The second purpose: promote scientific research along chiropractic lines. That is education, and it has been half the mission from the first day. A century of conventions, a century of doctors driving across the state on a Saturday to learn from each other. In 2015, we put continuing education online and made it free to our members because a doctor of chiropractic in Carbondale should have the same access as a doctor in Chicago. Nobody passes a law to make that happen. It happens because this profession has always taught its own.
And through every one of those years, one of us has stepped forward to lead. 50 of us have served as president of the ICS. 50, unbroken since 1926, through the depression, through a world war, through every year somebody said chiropractic would not last. None of us were paid to do it. Every one of us was running a practice at the same time, and since 1956, for 70 straight years, this society has stopped once a year to name a chiropractic physician of the year. 70 years of saying out loud that one of us went above and beyond. That is what we do. We take care of our own.
Here’s where I want to end. In 1926, seven chiropractic physicians had to file paperwork with the state just to have a voice. Fast forward 100 years, the Illinois House of Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution congratulating our society on a century of leadership and advocacy for chiropractic physicians in Illinois. Unanimously, not one vote against, not one. From seven doctors filing a certificate to the Illinois House standing behind us without a single objection-that is 100 years of work, and it is not done by an association. It was done by the doctors in this room and the doctors who came before us. Thank you.
