Chiropractic Integrated Clinical Practice Residency

The Mission of the VA Finger Lakes Healthcare System (VAFLHCS) Chiropractic Residency Program is to prepare chiropractic residents for clinical practice in hospitals or other medical settings, and/or academia, by providing them with hospital-based clinical training, interprofessional education, and scholarly activities.

Goals/Objectives

• Goal 1: Residents will acquire postgraduate clinical experience in hospital-based chiropractic care
  • G1. Objective 1: Residents will provide supervised patient care at satisfactory levels of competence to a broad population of musculoskeletal cases, most commonly spinal, in the context of collaborative team-based care
  • G1. Objective 2: Residents will gain experience in managing a range of complex/multimorbidity cases 

• Goal 2: Residents will engage in interprofessional educational experiences with relevant medical, surgical and associated health specialties
  • G2. Objective 1: Residents will complete clinical rotations in primary care, physical medicine and rehabilitation, other relevant medical or surgical specialties, behavioral medicine and other associated health disciplines

• Goal 3: Residents will participate in scholarly activities to gain experience relevant to integrated practice and/or academia
  • G3. Objective 1: Residents will collaborate with other chiropractic residents to complete national didactic courses and group assignments
  • G3. Objective 2: Residents will attend scholarly presentations among available hospital and/or academic affiliate offerings
  • G3. Objective 3: Residents will engage in research activities, and/or present scholarly material, and/or clinical workshops to staff and/or trainees at VA and/or academic affiliate venues 

VA Finger Lakes Healthcare System:

· Canandaigua VA Medical Center: 400 Fort Hill Ave. Canandaigua, NY

· Rochester Clinton Crossings VA Clinic: 919 Westfall Road, Rochester, NY 14618

· Bath VA Medical Center: 76 Veterans Avenue Bath, NY 14810

Training takes place at the individual VA facility, and may also include other sites such as the chiropractic school or other affiliated locations.

The Canandaigua and Rochester chiropractic clinics are each composed of four exam/treatment rooms, the Bath clinic is composed of two exam/treatment rooms, all furnished with state-of-the-art exam/treatment tables, computers, and other necessary equipment. Library support through VAFLHCS and the VISN 2 Online Library is available, as well as library support through the academic affiliate Northeast College of Health Sciences.

Salary is adjusted annually by VA Office of Academic Affiliations and based on geographic location. Residents receive paid Federal holidays, and accrue vacation and sick leave. Residents are also eligible for life and health insurance. Residents are protected from personal liability while providing professional services at a VA health care facility under the Federal Employees Liability Reform and Tort Compensation Act, 28 U.S.C. 2679 (b)-(d).

Upon satisfactory completion of program requirements, the graduate will receive an official Certificate of Residency, and records will be maintained at the VAFLHCS and the VHA Chiropractic National Program Office.

Applicants must hold or be scheduled to receive a DC degree from a CCE-accredited school prior to the July 1 start date of the residency program. A cumulative GPA of ≥ 3.0 out of 4.0 in the DC degree program is required. Licensure is not required prior to the start of the program. Accepted residents, prior to program completion, must obtain a full, active, and unrestricted chiropractic license in a State, Territory or Commonwealth of the US, or in the District of Columbia. Applicants must meet all VA employment requirements including US citizenship, and Selective Service registration when applicable.

The VA Finger Lakes Health Care System’s Chiropractic Residency Program participates in the national chiropractic residency common application and match process. 

The application process opens the first week in December each year. Applicants are assessed on characteristics such as academic background, relevant experience, personal statement, letters of recommendation, and telephone, video, and/or in-person interviews. Applicant rankings are made by a review committee including the residency director, DC faculty, and current DC resident.

Apply Here

https://natmatch.com/chiro/

Lindsay Rae, DC; Residency Program Director (RPD)

Dr. Rae is a 2008 graduate of New York Chiropractic College.  She opened and operated a successful private practice, while also serving as a faculty member of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in the Family Medicine Department. She joined the Department of Veterans Affairs as a part time Clinician in 2012, selling her private practice in 2016 to pursue a VA career full time at the VAFLHCS’ Rochester facility. She is currently the Chief of Chiropractic and Acupuncture Section, the Chiropractic Integrated Clinical Practice Residency Program Director, and the Deputy Designated Education Official (Deputy DEO) at VAFLHCS.  She is also an Assistant Professor at the Northeast College of Health Sciences, and a VA North Atlantic Regional Chiropractic Mentor.  She completed her three-year commitment as the North Atlantic Regional Lead for the National VA Chiropractic Field Advisory Committee in 2021, and served the ACA Representative of the US Bone and Joint Initiative as a national board member.  Additionally, she served as a consultant Medical Director for Excellus BCBS 2019-2024, assisting with development of an outlier management program and a community learning collaborative for chiropractors and physical therapists. She is a registered yoga instructor and published a pilot RCT looking at yoga for Veterans with low back pain, a scoping review on pain education, as well as published case studies on various topics related to clinical management. She has also been sought out as Delphi panel member on multiple published peer reviewed studies. Dr. Rae received the VA Finger Lakes Inaugural Women of the year award in 2021.

Christopher Farrell, DC, MS 

Dr. Farrell is a 2008 graduate of New York Chiropractic College, where he also attained a Master of Science in Clinical Nutrition. He maintained a private practice in a multidisciplinary medical setting until 2012. Dr. Farrell joined the Chillicothe, Ohio VA Medical Center in 2011, as part of a multidisciplinary pain management team. Dr. Farrell held a faculty position as a Clinical Assistant Professor at Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine teaching manual manipulative therapies to medical interns and residents. In 2014 he joined the Canandaigua, NY VA Medical Center as a staff chiropractor and New York Chiropractic College as an adjunct assistant professor in the VA teaching clinic. Dr. Farrell is certified in McKenzie Method® of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy® Dr. Farrell also holds a certification in acupuncture and has an interest in integrative pain management. Dr. Farrell is the North Atlantic Regional Lead for the VA Chiropractic Field Advisory Committee, and the chair of the VAFLHS Chiropractic Residency Clinical Competency Committee.

Michael Allgeier, DC 

Dr. Allgeier graduated from New York Chiropractic College in 2006. In 2008 he began private practice and was the first chiropractic physician on medical staff of Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago, IL in the Department of Family Medicine. From 2013 to 2016 he co-founded and served as the medical director of Mercy Spine and Back Care, a multi-disciplinary, system-wide program to treat patients with spine pain and pathology. He was an allied health staff member of AMITA Saint Joseph Hospital in Chicago from 2016 to 2021 in the Department of Rehabilitation and served there as a consulting chiropractor for the Diamond Headache Clinic in-patient unit from 2019 to 2021. He has been certified in the McKenzie Method of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (2011), the University of Pittsburgh primary spine practitioner program (2018), and the use of contemporary medical acupuncture for pain through McMaster University (2021).  Currently he has particular interests in trauma-informed care and pain neuroscience education. He began as a staff chiropractor at the VA Bath Medical Center in 2021 and transferred to the Rochester Outpatient Clinic in 2023 where he currently sees patients full time.

Samantha Pritty, DC, MS; Assistant Training Director 

 Dr. Pritty graduated from New York Chiropractic College in 2020, where she also obtained a Master’s of Applied Clinical Nutrition. In 2021, she was matched with VA Finger Lakes Healthcare System Chiropractic Integrated Clinical Practice Residency program. During her time as a resident, she obtained her certification in Contemporary Medical Acupuncture through McMaster University as well as becoming an Empowered Relief Instructor through Stanford University. In 2022, Dr. Pritty accepted a position at Cincinnati VA Medical Center where she worked closely with the interdisciplinary pain management team. In 2023, she was asked to return to the VA Finger Lakes Health Care System where she spent 1 year at the Bath Medical Center until she transferred in 2024 to Rochester and Canandaigua sites. In 2024 she completed the Therapeutic Pain Specialist certification through Evidence in Motion as well as accepted to position as the Assistant Training Director, effectively being placed as the lead for the Remote Clerkship Chiropractic Student program affiliated with Northeast College of Health Science (formerly NYCC) where she is an adjunct clinical instructor. Dr. Pritty has a passion for patient education, more specifically pain neuroscience education from a research and clinical standpoint within the chiropractic profession. At ACC-RAC 2025, she was a panelist presenter to discuss her ongoing work related to pain neuroscience education and patient education. 

William O. Bauman, DC, MS, FACO, DACRB

Dr. Bauman graduated from the National College of Chiropractic in 1991. He completed two Diplomate programs, one in Chiropractic Rehabilitation and one in Chiropractic Orthopedics. He completed a program in Rehabilitation of the Locomotor System, Charles University Prague, Czech Republic, a medical acupuncture program through McMaster University, Ontario, Canada. He completed certification in Graston technique. He has a Master of Science in Applied Clinical Psychology from Walden University. He has practiced in a variety of settings for the last 32 years. He established a private practice in Elmira Heights, New York, where he practiced until 2001. He was consulting Chiropractic Director with Excellus Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Central NY for about a decade developing utilization guidelines , education materials, and acted as a liaison between Excellus and the chiropractic community,. In 2001 he left private practice and joined the Guthrie Medical Group, a multidisciplinary hospital-based teaching facility based in Sayre, PA, as the co-director of their spine care program, based in the Neurology Department, informally working with trainees; Family Medicine Residents, Internal Medicine Residents, medical students, and high school scholars. He left the Guthrie Clinic in 2024 to join the VAFLHCS full time in Bath, NY, as a staff chiropractor. He has participated on DELPHI panels with the Osher Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston MA, which focused on Chiropractic and Tai Chi for Chronic Non-Specific Neck Pain, and Chiropractic Plus Usual Medical Care for Migraine. He focuses his clinical approach along the lines of the biopsychosocial model, traditional manual care, utilizing motivational interviewing, patient centered active rehabilitation, and acupuncture.