The "Doctor" Will See You Now.

The Expanding Scope of Chiropractic Practice and the “Doctor” Title: A Growing Transparency Crisis

Last week, I wrote an op-ed about President Trump’s mysterious MRI and what it might indicate about his health. I was careful to disclose that I am not a physician. The response I received illuminated precisely the problem this article addresses.

A commenter pushed back, writing: “This op-ed is heavy handed. MRIs are used for many different types of clinical reasoning. They aren’t only used when something is ‘distinctly, troubling wrong.’... And, I am a doctor with 35 years of ordering and interpreting MRIs, and quite familiar with the clinical reasoning pertinent thereto.”

The individual was not a physician. He was a chiropractor—and therein lies the problem.

I responded directly: “You are not a physician—you are a chiropractor and no, you are not qualified to interpret MRIs of the abdomen and brain. These are outside the scope of your practice and training. You are not a radiologist.”

This chiropractor was asserting clinical reasoning about ordering and interpreting brain and abdominal …