Joe Esposito, D.C.
Making His Mark in Chiropractic History
Shortly after graduating from Life University in 1996 and earning his Doctor of Chiropractic, alumnus Joe Esposito hit the ground running. He personally opened five clinics in his first six years in private practice and has since teamed up with his sister, Cristina Esposito, D.C., (’06) and founded a national chiropractic franchise called AlignLife with 30 clinics throughout the nation. In addition to the franchise, they started a nonprofit called Health Missions and a wellness technology company called VitaLogics where hundreds of chiropractic clinics utilize the VitaLogics Electrionic Health Records. Now, he has partnered with his alma mater to publish research using one of the largest chiropractic databases in history. “For the first time in history, we are able to data mine a massive chiropractic database to show the efficacy, cost effectiveness and broad effects of chiropractic care,” says Esposito.
He pitched the partnership idea to LIFE during last year’s Fall CE. “After presenting at the Fall CE convention, I sat down with the research department and laid out a plan of what we wanted to do, and they were very interested in it,” Esposito says. “This is groundbreaking for the University, and we are very excited for initiating the long-term relationship. We now just need the funding and support.”
The process to get where Esposito is today and his partnership with LIFE has taken about 15 years. He started by opening his first AlignLife clinic in 1999 in Bloomington, Illinois, and now, the franchised clinics are located nationwide from the Midwest to the East Coast, and each provide patients with a natural approach to health and chiropractic care.
After opening many of his clinics, Esposito developed the chiropractic software VitaLogics in 2009. The wellness technology company provides data collecting software to healthcare providers and patients throughout the country. TheVitaLogics database currently has about 105,000 patients entered into it, but with the support of LIFE, the number is expected to increase considerably. Esposito is committed to creating one million active chiropractic data files over the next three plus years, with upward of 1,000 clinics accessing the technology. “We created the software to bring the research together,” Esposito adds.
To help fund research of the data collected through VitaLogics, Esposito founded Health Missions in 2004. The nonprofit focuses on providing healthcare services to the underprivileged, nationally and internationally, and educating the public about natural health opportunities and lifestyle choices.
With his clinics, software and nonprofit in place, Esposito decided that his fourth step would be to partner with his alma mater. In collaborating with LIFE’s Office of Sponsored Research and Scholarship Activity, data is collected, research analyzed and studies published that help shed light on the benefits of chiropractic care.
Esposito invites the healthcare community to donate to this research by partnering with Health Missions and becoming a charter or advocate. Without contributions from people committed to validating the effectiveness of natural health care, specifically Chiropractic, a dream of large-scale research will be nothing but a dream. Doctors are also encouraged to use the software at their offices so that they too can be included in the study.
To learn more about the clinics, software and nonprofit visit: