History

The Swiss Chiropractic Academy evolved out of a training program organized in the sixties by the Swiss chiropractic profession for young graduates returning from North America who had to take a Swiss exam in order to get a licence for practising chiropractic independently.

In Switzerland, the establishment of the chiropractic profession was progressively realized through the adoption of cantonal regulations. This process started in Lucerne and Zurich in the mid-thirties. It was only in 1964, however, that the profession was recognized on the federal level and chiropractic care was reimbursed within a system referred to as the Basic Care Insurance Plan. From there on, everybody in Switzerland had access to chiropractic care and was reimbursed for the expenses incurred.

At that time, there was no full chiropractic education curriculum in Switzerland. The young graduates coming back from North America hold a US or Canadian diploma and, since it is a cantonal privilege to deliver the licence to practise, the cantons organized examinations to verify the competency of these graduates.

The chiropractic profession recognized very early the need for a postgraduate training program which would prepare young graduates for these cantonal examinations. In 1968 a few practitioners organized a central course, limited to a series of lectures, which were originally delivered in two private offices, later in the back part of an old restaurant in Berne, the «Innere Enge Pub».

In 1974, the cantonal health authorities published a text, which regulated what is referred to as the intercantonal examination for chiropractors. An intercantonal examination was organized under the aegis of the Swiss Conference of the Cantonal Ministers of Public Health (GDK/CDS).

The original central course moved from the «Innere Enge Pub» into a rented office space in a building already containing a private practice in Berne. But space was limited and this setting did not allow for further development. In 1984, the Swiss Chiropractic Institute was born.

In fall 2007 a reorganisation was necessary to adapt to the new medical law and to the education for chiropractors at the University of Zurich, for the first time in 2008. The Swiss Chiropractic Academy was founded as an independent institution for postgraduate and continuing education under the premise of the Swiss Chiropractic Association ChiroSuisse.