Chiropractic and medical models of health care--a contemporary perspective.

Chiropractic and medical models of health care are perceived as philosophically incompatible by chiropractic practitioners and spokesmen for the medical profession. This alleged incompatibility is used to rationalize the resistance of the medical profession to the functional integration of chiropractic into the orthodox referral system. Structural integration of chiropractic into the orthodox health care system which is unaccompanied by functional integration fails to confer upon patients the benefits of that system. It is therefore in the interests of patient care that the alleged philosophical differences be examined and, if possible, resolved. Examination of the chiropractic and relevant medical models of health care in the contemporary context of the health disease continuum sheds new light on traditional philosophical conflicts.