Eric J. Roseen, DC, has been engaged in a research fellowship supported by the National Institute of Health (NIH) through the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. In July he began his fellowship at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and is working closely with Robert Saper, M.D., MPH, the director of Integrative Medicine within the BMC Family Medicine Department.

Through the fellowship, Roseen will be honing his research skills and examining integrative approaches to the management of chronic back pain. “I believe that patients from all walks of life can benefit from natural treatments like chiropractic, massage and yoga,” he says. “I plan to add to the body of research on how these treatments can add value to patient care.”

With 75,000 doctors of chiropractic in the United States, chiropractic is one of the largest, most regulated and best recognized Complementary and Integrative Medicine (CIM) professions. Chiropractors practice in the United States and in more than 100 other countries representing a significant healthcare resource, both nationally and globally. Chiropractors are positioned to contribute to an integrative team and mange numerous common musculoskeletal conditions such as back pain, neck pain and headache.

Inclusion of chiropractic, yoga, massage and other CIM disciplines alongside conventional medicine at the education and clinic level is essential. “If there are more opportunities for inter-professional education and multidisciplinary clinical practice, Integrative Medicine practitioners stand to contribute to more clinical settings, providing patients new options that could improve health and care satisfaction while reducing healthcare costs,” Roseen says.

Eric Roseen is a chiropractic physician at Visions HealthCare, 910 Washington St., Dedham.