The Pitt Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) program welcomes its latest faculty member, Jeff Jones, who is an assistant professor and community health center coordinator. Jones fills a unique role in the DC program with his placement at the Alma Illery Medical Center, a federally qualified health center (FQHC) in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh providing health care services to medically underserved populations. He will also lead chiropractic clinical services at the SHRS Wellness Pavilion Community Engagement Center, where faculty and students will administer a range of rehabilitation services for free to community members.
Pitt is one of the few Doctor of Chiropractic programs in the U.S. that provides services and training within community health centers. Our students will participate in clinical rotations with Jones at these centers, not only fine tuning their manual therapy skills, but also learning the importance of helping people from diverse backgrounds with a variety of medical conditions and providing them access to high quality health care.
Learn more about Jeff Jones and this special community health care relationship that will prepare Pitt DC students to become a new generation of well-rounded and highly skilled practitioners!
Discovering a Chiropractic Career
How did you become interested in a chiropractic career?
I completed my undergraduate work at Western Michigan University where I played on the soccer team. I had always been interested in health sciences and really gravitated towards ways I could help people take their health into their own hands and create that kind of partnership with patients to help guide them towards healthy, informed choices. Chiropractors are perfectly aligned to do so.
I graduated from National University of Health Sciences in 2014 so I’ve been practicing for a little over 11 years now. I’ve worked for a few years in private practice but primarily worked in a unique environment where I was able to collaborate with physical therapists and medical providers to bring high-value health care to large, self-insured organizations.
What do you enjoy about being a chiropractor?
Each patient I see is kind of a complex puzzle. I really enjoy the problem-solving aspect of treating patients with musculoskeletal pain. And I think, even to a further extent, I love seeing the shift in a patient’s confidence once they’re educated on their condition and they have clear actionable steps to start moving and feeling better. It really comes down to creating those strong relationships and trust between patient and provider, and often that’s the missing piece for patients dealing with pain or dysfunction.
The Pitt Doctor of Chiropractic Program
What makes you excited to be part of the ground-breaking Pitt DC program?
To have the opportunity to make such an impact on the future of the chiropractic profession is an absolute dream. It’s no secret that the health care system has some definite gaps, particularly when it comes to musculoskeletal conditions. As chiropractors, we are perfectly positioned to fill those gaps and add tremendous value to that system as a whole.
Pitt’s DC program is designed to create a new generation of extremely skilled clinicians who will have the training and tools to improve how health care is delivered, and I’m privileged to be a part of it.
What are you most looking forward to doing with the first cohort?
I think the nature of Pitt’s DC program attracts a certain kind of person. I have no doubt this first cohort of students will be as inquisitive as they are motivated. I can’t wait to meet these students from various backgrounds and help guide them to where they feel they can make the biggest impact on the communities they’ll go on to serve.
Community-Based Clinics
What are the community clinics and what will DC students will be doing there?
We are partnering with Primary Care Health Services (PCHS), which is a designated FQHC consisting of 10 clinics within Allegheny County. We will start by providing chiropractic services within their flagship clinic, Alma Illery. Here, our chiropractic faculty will work as an integrated member of their primary care team. Students will get to experience how physicians and chiropractors collaborate professionally in the management of spine and other musculoskeletal conditions. While we will be initially located at Alma Illery, all patients within the PCHS system will have access to these integrated chiropractic services.
At the Wellness Pavilion, our clinical faculty and students will provide pro bono chiropractic services to under and uninsured community members in partnership with other programs in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. In addition to clinical services, we will be active in community engagement activities to support needs across the population from youth sports to senior living.
The work we’ll be doing will be similar in terms of the type and quality of care patients will receive. At both sites, the community will have access to some of the highest quality, evidence-based chiropractic care providing non-surgical management of spine and other musculoskeletal conditions.
Community Health Center Coordinator Role
What will students gain from having you in the program?
My professional experience is fairly unique and brings huge advantages to our students. For nearly a decade I worked in an environment steeped in accountability to patient outcomes and evidence-based clinical decision making. That’s where I really “nerd out” professionally.
I’ll be taking those years of clinical experience spent refining that skill of classifying and subclassifying patients, and integrating that into the Pitt DC program throughout the curriculum. Our students will benefit from having that sound clinical decision making as the DNA of what makes them exceptional clinicians.
Students will get to see a couple of unique things at Alma Illery. The first being a multidisciplinary environment where patients are co-managed by DCs and medical providers side by side. The second unique aspect they’ll benefit from is seeing how to manage patients with complex medical, psycho-social and socioeconomic backgrounds with an empathetic and evidence-based approach.
What else would you like students to know about you?
I think it’s important my students know that as important as the work we’re doing is, if we’re not having a little fun while we’re doing it, then we’re doing it wrong! Having grown up exploring the outdoors in Michigan, I love all things related to hunting, hiking, camping and sports.
But at my core I’m just a girl-dad softie with a heart for helping people learn, grow and succeed!
