The ACBSP™ represents the largest body of recognized chiropractic specialists with more than 2,000 Doctors of Chiropractic who hold current certificates of additional qualification as either a DACBSP® or CCSP®. Since the early nineteen eighties the ACBSP™ has led the development and implementation of chiropractic sports medicine certifications and has succeeded in offering validated credentialing processes. These processes ensure that ACBSP certified sports chiropractors meet competency standards to effectively work with and care for athletes and active people from all walks of life.

The ACBSP™ also offers an annual sports science symposium that provides evidence guided continuing education and research directly related to sports chiropractic. The 2022 ACBSPSports Science Symposium will meet at the Hilton Los Angeles / Universal City with a theme of “Complex Considerations for the Athlete.” The symposium starts Thursday April 28, 2022 and closes on Sunday May 1, 2022. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn and visit with your peers in person in sunny California. The targeted outcome of the symposium is to facilitate the dissemination of the latest scientific knowledge, treatment trends and best practices for patient care. Click Here for more information.

Society is experiencing historic transitions within the health care industry with some shift toward more technology. The ACBSP continues to explore how we can best position the ACBSP and you the certificant to better leverage technology to help in examination delivery and development and promoting sports chiropractic.

The ACBSP is at a crossroads of developing the strategic plan for the future of the ACBSP. We need to be creative while developing clarity regarding how to best preserve what we do well and to creatively adapt to both challenges and solutions. Last month the ACBSP board of directors, examinations chairs and key leaders of the ACBSP met for a strategic summit to best identify the future priorities and strategies for our certificants.

At the meeting we focused on identifying the role of the ACBSP board of directors, how to help the ACBSP build process and policy to provide for a planned consistent forward movement of the institutional directive while also maintaining the fiduciary duty all ACBSP officers and staff are required to honor. Experience seems to indicate the course of the ACBSP is tactically identified by the board of directors at the time which does not necessarily equate to meeting ACBSP strategic initiatives. One position, which I support, is the need to focus on building organizational structure to optimize the role of the ACBSP board of directors to best oversee, or manage, the actions of the implementors of ACBSP strategy: the ACBSP home office staff, examination committees and other committees.

Financially the ACBSP is currently in a solid position. The BOD is slowly building an emergency reserve fund to ensure the financial security and thus the longevity of the ACBSP.

Over the past three decades, the ACBSP has studied and developed new definitions for the certificates of additional qualifications of a DACBSP® and CCSP® on a five-year rotating basis. Please make sure you participate in these surveys when you see these next surveys in a couple years.  The job analysis provides the blueprint for guidance to keep the certification process current and reflective of today’s needs for the Doctor of Chiropractic with a certificate of additional qualification in sports. Then academic programs are notified of the updates.

Over the coming months, the ACBSP will continue to work to better define the ACBSP committee structure and scope of responsibilities and share this information with you. If you see a committee that is interesting to you and you would like to be considered to help please notify the ACBSP home office.

To meet evolving needs of patients, the ACBSP position papers on concussion and the periodic health examination (PPE) will be updated in 2022. We look forward to sharing the updated positions with you.

Your work in health care is embodied in daily patient impact where you spread the word of sports chiropractic. Providing best of class health care to patients from all backgrounds expands upon the good works already done. Patients seek health care experiences where they feel listened to and empowered, and where health care teams collaborate with patients to deliver customized patient centered care informed by evidence, clinical experience, and patient preferences. 

The ACBSP continues to lead the charge for chiropractic specialties and chiropractic practice. The steps forward that we have taken together are still just the beginning. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers: The Story of Success shared “Working really hard is what successful people do…”. The ACBSP appreciates that you are working hard every day and the ACBSP is working hard to support you. Tomorrow’s solutions will arise from fresh ideas and creative innovations, not from replicating the strategies of the past. I invite you to join with the ACBSP as we continue to design and deliver a plan for the future.