Dr. David Thorpe, DC
Board Certified in Occupational Health · Board Certified in Applied Ergonomics · DOT Certified Medical Examiner · Last updated: May 19, 2026
Dr. David Thorpe, DC, is the founder and president of Pass My Physical and a nationally recognized expert on the FMCSA medical examiner certification process. A practicing chiropractor since 1979 with board certifications in occupational health and applied ergonomics, Dr. Thorpe contributed to the development of the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners (NRCME), authored two reference works used by examiners across the country, and has trained more than 11,000 medical professionals to prepare for and pass the NRCME certification exam. He also serves on the postgraduate faculty at Northwestern Health Sciences University.
About Dr. Thorpe, DC
Dr. David A. Thorpe, DC, has built a career at the intersection of clinical practice, occupational medicine, and federal regulatory policy. After earning his Doctor of Chiropractic from Los Angeles College of Chiropractic in 1979, he established Thorpe Chiropractic Office in Fayetteville, New York, where he continues to see patients in private practice today. Over more than four decades, he has expanded his expertise well beyond clinical chiropractic into the regulatory and educational dimensions of occupational medicine — particularly the medical certification of commercial motor vehicle drivers under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
Dr. Thorpe is President of Pass My Physical, LLC, a technology and education company providing accredited NRCME training, an EHR platform for medical examiners (DOTinsight), a drug-testing supply network, and a community platform for DOT examiner professionals. He is also President and owner of WorkRite Safety, an occupational consulting firm based in upstate New York.
Role in the development of the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners (NRCME)
When the FMCSA established the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners under the 2012 final rule, the agency needed input from practicing examiners with deep experience in commercial driver health certification. Dr. Thorpe contributed to that development process, helping shape how the certification program would be implemented, what knowledge areas examiners would be tested on, and how the training requirements would be structured to align with the realities of clinical practice.
That early involvement informs everything Pass My Physical does today. The training curriculum reflects not just what the FMCSA requires examiners to know, but why — the regulatory intent behind each standard, the advisory criteria that fill the gaps in formal regulation, and the practical decisions examiners face every day in determining driver fitness.
Board certifications and credentials
- Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) — Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, 1979
- Board Certified in Occupational Health
- Board Certified in Applied Ergonomics
- DOT Certified Medical Examiner (CME) — listed on the National Registry
- Licensed Chiropractor — New York State
Books and published works
Dr. Thorpe has authored two reference works for medical examiners that remain in active use across the industry:
The CME’s Guide to the D.O.T. Physical Exam (CreateSpace, 2015) A comprehensive clinical reference manual for Certified Medical Examiners performing DOT physical examinations. The guide covers medical qualification determinations, regulatory and advisory criteria for specific conditions, examination protocols, and includes appendices with state and federal agency contact information, drug and alcohol testing business considerations, and practical guidance for examiners building DOT services into their practices.
NRCME Study Guide (CreateSpace, 2015)
The companion study guide used by candidates preparing to sit for the NRCME certification examination. Organized around the categories the NRCME identifies as testable areas — healthy driver physical, regulations, documentation, certification periods, waiting periods, required testing, counseling, waivers and exemptions, disqualifying conditions, and disqualifying medications — with a 120-question practice test and cross-references back to The CME’s Guide.
In addition to these books, Dr. Thorpe has published a number of articles in professional journals on occupational medicine and commercial driver health, and regularly publishes revisions and updated material as FMCSA regulations and advisory criteria evolve.
Teaching and faculty appointments
Dr. Thorpe serves on the postgraduate faculty at Northwestern Health Sciences University, teaching courses in occupational medicine and related topics. He has also held faculty appointments at New York Chiropractic College (now Northeast College of Health Sciences), and is regularly invited to lecture at colleges, universities, and professional organizations around the country.
He has personally trained more than 11,000 medical examiners — including MDs, DOs, DCs, NPs, PAs, and APRNs — to prepare for the NRCME certification examination. The Pass My Physical training course, which he developed, is jointly accredited by the Postgraduate Institute for Medicine (PIM) and Providers of Accredited Chiropractic Education (PACE) of the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards.
Industry leadership and consulting
Beyond his roles at Pass My Physical and WorkRite Safety, Dr. Thorpe consults nationally with both medical examiners and motor carriers, helping them navigate the complexity of medical certification — from straightforward initial certifications to challenging cases involving conditional certifications, exemptions, and skill performance evaluations.
He has served in leadership roles in state and national organizations representing the chiropractic profession and occupational medicine specialty, and is a frequently invited speaker at industry events. His work has been featured by Healthy Trucking of America and other industry organizations focused on commercial driver health.
Clinical practice
Why Pass My Physical exists
Dr. Thorpe founded Pass My Physical to consolidate what medical examiners actually need to run a successful DOT physical practice: training that prepares them to pass the NRCME exam and perform exams correctly, an EHR built specifically for DOT examinations, access to compliant drug-testing supplies, and a community of fellow examiners they can turn to with the genuinely difficult questions that come up in practice.
“After thirty years of doing this work, I realized that medical examiners weren’t lacking information — they were lacking the right information, organized the right way, supported by people who actually understand the FMCSA standards. Pass My Physical exists to give examiners every tool they need, in one place, from people they can trust.”
— Dr. David Thorpe