Manual therapies and other complementary & alternative medicine (CAM) services can trace their roots to ancient healing techniques. In the modern Western approach to medicine and public health, CAM manual therapies are not as incorporated or integrated as perhaps they should be, in part because of the evidence-based paradigm of health that requires extensive studies for proof of effectiveness.

To move CAM manual therapy research and integration into health care forward, research into use and effectiveness should be done. Unfortunately, few manual therapists are yet trained to do research that can be published in peer-reviewed medical journals, and many researchers do not have the depth of understanding of the field (competencies, training, multitude of techniques used by practitioners) to create studies that effectively reflect real-world practice in a reproducible way. Nor can health policy makers easily identify appropriate information with which to make decisions.

These surveys are to help fill those gaps. They will be used to gather the practice demographic information that researchers need (e.g., practice settings, therapies practiced, integration and clinical decisions when multiple therapies practiced). The surveys will be supported by a number of interviews that will ask practitioners about practice issues (assessment, blending of techniques) when they are trained in multiple therapies. Together, they will provide a better understanding of CAM manual therapy practices, so that research and policy can be properly designed.

There are a couple of steps involved in gathering the practice demographics. Please see the information under Survey #1, and Survey #2 to see how they fit into the whole project. The aim is to undertake Survey #3 once Survey #2 information has been published.