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DACBR stands for Diplomate, American Chiropractic Board of Radiology. This denotes a doctor of chiropractic who also has a board-certified specialty in diagnostic imaging. A chiropractor who has DACBR status will have:
- 4 year undergraduate college/university degree
- 4 year doctorate in chiropractic
- 3 year postgraduate radiology residency
The chiropractic radiologist is thus a graduate doctor of chiropractic who has completed additional postgraduate specialty education. Many chiropractic colleges throughout the world offer formal, 3-year radiology residency programs for chiropractic radiologists. Entrance into such residencies require applicants to hold a doctor of chiropractic degree (D.C.), as well as successfully passing a pre-residency admission examination. The residency involves intense didactic education in all forms of diagnostic imaging. Each semester is usually devoted to imaging of one major system, and often many semesters are needed to cover an entire topic. The resident also participates in educational programs at various off site imaging facilities at teaching medical hospitals, private imaging facilities, medical grand rounds, and private tutorials.
Interestingly, a recent study revealed that chiropractic trained radiologists were equally as effective at reading radiographs as medical trained radiologists:
Reliability and Validity of Lumbosacral Spine Radiograph Reading by Chiropractors, Chiropractic Radiologists, and Medical Radiologists. Spine. 2002. Volume 27, Issue 17, pp 1926-1933
