Dr. Bart Green: Champion of Evidence-Based Chiropractic Care

Over the course of his accomplished career, SCU Alumnus Dr. Green (’92) has been at the forefront of transformation in chiropractic care

When Dr. Bart Green graduated from the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic (now Southern California University of Health Sciences) with his Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) in 1992, the field was on the cusp of a transformation. “At the time, chiropractors working in hospitals were exceedingly rare — but now,” Dr. Green says, “chiropractors and acupuncturists are wanted on health care teams because they see that we provide another option for patients.”

Dr. Green sees this move to a more inclusive, interdisciplinary approach as unquestionably better for the patient.

“Chiropractors aren’t working in a vacuum anymore, wondering what is going on at the patient’s health care facility,” he says. “With integrated care, we tend to see that patients have better outcomes. Plus, if I don’t know the answer to something, I can walk down the hall and talk to someone who has different strengths. We can collaborate on an approach that’s going to work for the patient.”

Currently a chiropractic provider with a clinical specialty in the care of athletes for a major corporate health center, Dr. Green is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chiropractic Education and the technical and medical editor for the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, and the Journal of Chiropractic Humanities. Dr. Green has worked in private practice, provided chiropractic care to members of the military at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, and has served as Associate Dean of Curriculum, Clinician, and Associate Professor at Palmer College of Chiropractic. In addition to his DC, Dr. Green holds an MsED in medical education and a PhD in public health and epidemiology.

This impressive resume hints at Dr. Green’s appreciation for science and evidence-based chiropractic care, one of the main reasons that he chose SCU for his DC. “There were a few schools that were leading the charge for a scientific approach to chiropractic practice and [SCU] was one of them,” he remembers. “Some of the most impressive researchers at the time were at [SCU]. It really stimulated my thought process and cemented my commitment to the need for evidence in my practice.”

He sees the culture of SCU as an enduring force that still shapes the way he approaches his career: “One of the aspects of the college at the time — and I think it’s still there now — was the encouragement to look into things with an open mind, to explore ideas, concepts, and chiropractic techniques and really objectively evaluate these things. I think that’s really healthy.”

You can see this continued commitment to objective assessment in the way Dr. Green describes how his multi-faceted areas of expertise build on and inform one another today.

“Any of the research that we do as a profession needs to be informed by what’s going on in the real clinical patient-doctor interaction,” he explains. “All of our theory, all of our hypotheses, all of our meaning for research really needs to be driven and informed by how and why we provide care. You investigate using good, rigorous science, and then you close the loop by feeding that information back into practice.”

This cycle is what keeps Dr. Green excited about and engaged with his work: “It’s a constant lifelong learning practice.”