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      The perspectives of educators, regulators and funders of massage therapy on the state of the profession in British Columbia, Canada

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          Abstract

          Background

          Registered Massage Therapists (RMTs) are valuable members of the healthcare team who assist in health promotion, disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliation. RMT visits have increased across Canada over the past decade with the highest increase in British Columbia (BC). Currently, RMTs are private practitioners of healthcare operating within a largely publicly funded system, positioning them outside of the dominant system of healthcare and making them an important case study in private healthcare. In another paper we examined the perspectives of RMTs themselves. Here, we offer perspectives of regulators, educators and funders of Massage Therapy (MT) on advancement of the profession.

          Methods

          We interviewed 28 stakeholders of MT in BC – including members of the MT regulatory board, representatives from MT colleges in BC and public and private health insurers.

          Results

          All three groups identified research, particularly on efficacy of MT, as playing a vital role in enhancing the professional credibility of MT. However, participants noted that presently research is not a large feature of the current MT curricula and we analyze why this may be and how it can improve. Finally, conferral of baccalaureate degree status could assist RMTs in gaining recognition with the general public and other healthcare professionals.

          Conclusion

          RMTs have potential to ameliorate population health in a cost-effective manner. Their role in British Columbia’s healthcare landscape could be expanded if they produce more research and earn degree status.

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          Most cited references4

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          A review of the evidence for the effectiveness, safety, and cost of acupuncture, massage therapy, and spinal manipulation for back pain.

          Few treatments for back pain are supported by strong scientific evidence. Conventional treatments, although widely used, have had limited success. Dissatisfied patients have, therefore, turned to complementary and alternative medical therapies and providers for care for back pain. To provide a rigorous and balanced summary of the best available evidence about the effectiveness, safety, and costs of the most popular complementary and alternative medical therapies used to treat back pain. MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register. Systematic reviews of randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) that were published since 1995 and that evaluated acupuncture, massage therapy, or spinal manipulation for nonspecific back pain and RCTs published since the reviews were conducted. Two authors independently extracted data from the reviews (including number of RCTs, type of back pain, quality assessment, and conclusions) and original articles (including type of pain, comparison treatments, sample size, outcomes, follow-up intervals, loss to follow-up, and authors' conclusions). Because the quality of the 20 RCTs that evaluated acupuncture was generally poor, the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating acute or chronic back pain is unclear. The three RCTs that evaluated massage reported that this therapy is effective for subacute and chronic back pain. A meta-regression analysis of the results of 26 RCTs evaluating spinal manipulation for acute and chronic back pain reported that spinal manipulation was superior to sham therapies and therapies judged to have no evidence of a benefit but was not superior to effective conventional treatments. Initial studies have found massage to be effective for persistent back pain. Spinal manipulation has small clinical benefits that are equivalent to those of other commonly used therapies. The effectiveness of acupuncture remains unclear. All of these treatments seem to be relatively safe. Preliminary evidence suggests that massage, but not acupuncture or spinal manipulation, may reduce the costs of care after an initial course of therapy.
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            Bodywork Boundaries: Power, Politics and Professionalism in Therapeutic Massage

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              Physicians' perspectives on massage therapy.

              To examine the knowledge, opinions, and referral behaviour of family physicians with respect to massage therapy and to explore factors associated with referral. A random, cross-sectional mailed survey. Alberta family practices. Family physicians (n = 300). A self-report survey was developed for the study. This survey contained questions about sociodemographic and practice characteristics, perceived knowledge of massage therapy, opinions about the usefulness and legislation (government regulations) of massage therapy, and referral behaviour. Fifty-four percent of physicians (n = 161) completed the questionnaire. Sixty-eight percent of respondents indicated they had minimal or no knowledge of massage therapy. Despite this low level of knowledge, most (83%) believed massage therapy was a useful adjunct to their own practice. Moreover, 71% had referred patients to massage therapists and most (72%) perceived increasing demand from their patients for massage therapy. Approximately half of physicians surveyed supported government regulation of massage therapy. Physicians demonstrated a discrepancy between their knowledge of massage therapy and their opinions of, and referrals to, the profession. Physicians who referred patients to massage therapists generally held more positive opinions and had more knowledge of the discipline.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Chiropr Man Therap
                Chiropr Man Therap
                Chiropractic & Manual Therapies
                BioMed Central
                2045-709X
                2013
                7 January 2013
                : 21
                : 2
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Family Practice and School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Third Floor David Strangway Bldg, 5950 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z3, Canada
                [2 ]Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University, Simon Fraser, Canada
                Article
                2045-709X-21-2
                10.1186/2045-709X-21-2
                3565927
                23294987
                89e2c2e0-9158-4c7b-a37d-2f4cdec81ccc
                Copyright ©2013 Shroff and Sahota; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 23 July 2012
                : 11 November 2012
                Categories
                Research

                Complementary & Alternative medicine
                alternative and complementary health care,health care professionals,massage therapy,professional education

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