Research Article Themes Underlying Australian General Practitioner Views towards Chiropractic and Osteopathy: An Assessment of Free Text Data from a Cross-Sectional Survey Sandra Grace, 1 Roger Engel , 2 and Ian Jalsion 2 1 School of Health & Human Sciences, Southern Cross University, Military Road, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia 2 Department of Chiropractic, Macquarie University, Balaclava Road, North Ryde, NSW 2109, Australia Correspondence should be addressed to Roger Engel; roger.engel@mq.edu.au Received 21 August 2017; Revised 23 November 2017; Accepted 12 December 2017; Published 14 January 2018 Academic Editor: H. Stephen Injeyan Copyright © 2018 Sandra Grace et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Te Australian chiropractic and osteopathic professions underwent a period of signifcant transformation between 1960 and 2000. Tis resulted in an improvement in the views held by the medical profession towards the two professions. However, a recent survey of Australian general practitioners (GPs) reported that a number of GPs still hold negative views towards chiropractors and osteopaths. Tis paper examines these views from the perspective of critical realism and explores the generative mechanisms that can infuence the willingness of health practitioners to collaborate over patient care. A qualitative analysis of open-ended responses to a survey of 630 Australian GPs was conducted. Unfavourable attitudes of GPs towards chiropractors and osteopaths included perceived lack of safety, efcacy, and inadequacy of training, despite chiropractic’s and osteopathy’s reliance on the same evidence base and similar training to those of other manual therapy professions such as physiotherapy. Tese attitudes may be underpinned by the professional biases against chiropractic and osteopathy that continue to marginalise the professions within the Australian healthcare system. Continued investment in the research base for chiropractic and osteopathic practice is required, along with raising the awareness of GPs about the education and skills of chiropractors and osteopaths. 1. Introduction While both chiropractic and osteopathy are formally recog- nised as allied health professions, their role within the Aus- tralian healthcare system has not been clearly delineated [1]. Tis may in part be the result of attitudes of Australian general medical practitioners (GPs) towards the two professions. Between 1960 and 2000, the chiropractic and osteopathic professions in Australia underwent a period of signifcant transformation which included practitioner registration, the creation of codes of practice, and an upgrade in educational standards [2–7]. Te period was also characterised by the amalgamation of a number of smaller professional associa- tions to form larger associations [8]. Inclusion of chiropractic and osteopathic services on the Australian Government’s Medicare Benefts Schedule was granted in 2005 [9] and the professions were designated as allied health professions soon afer [10]. Tese changes brought a shif in attitude by sections of the medical profession in favour of chiropractic and osteopathy. Some GPs were willing to refer patients for chiropractic and osteopathic treatment in an attempt to collaborate over patient care [11–13]. Despite the shif in attitude, the chiropractic and osteopathic professions failed to grasp the opportunity to expand their research base through collaborative projects. Tis may have been due to a lack of research training and funding within the professions [14] but also to the view held by some about the methodological difculties associated with identifying appropriate placebo controls for testing complex, individualised interventions such as chiropractic and osteopathy [15, 16]. Tis failure to increase the level of research lef the professions open to criticism and scepticism from mainstream medicine. A recent survey of 630 Australian GPs about their views towards chiropractors and osteopaths reported that a number of GPs still hold negative views towards chiropractors and Hindawi Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2018, Article ID 2786106, 7 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/2786106