For many in the chiropractic profession, the name Dr Brian Budgell represents one thing: supreme clinical documentation. Over the past 25 years, Brian has built and enhanced his reputation as not just an esteemed chiropractor and educator, but as someone who’s mastered the art of patient case writing.
Towards the back end of 2025, his experience was showcased to ACA members through a four-part, sold-out webinar series.
“I really enjoyed our webinar series,” he says. “Teachers often complain that teaching wears them out, but at the end of each of our webinars, I felt energised.”
“That came from participants who were truly engaged and full of clinical wisdom.”
Like so many in the profession, Brian was introduced to chiropractic through unfortunate circumstances. An avid martial artist during his university years, it was a series of injuries induced by his passion that led him into chiropractic’s arms. Because of this, he entered the profession with a view of it as more of a sports medicine type of practice.
“Chiropractic helped me a lot and given my background (BSc & MSc) in biology, chiropractic seemed like a very appealing profession,” he says.
After studying at and graduating from the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic Centre (CMCC) in 1986, Brian ran his own clinic before moving to Japan. There, he spent seven years working under Professor Akio Sato in the Department of the Autonomic Nervous System at the Tokyo Institute of Gerontology, researching the neurobiological basis of somatic therapies, most particularly somatoautonomic reflexes.
Those experiences and credentials have guided Brian through a stellar career that has taken him all over the world.
Dr Brian Budgell's Big Tent Plans
In August, he’ll find himself further south but not too far from home: Adelaide. Having already exposed himself to Australia’s chiropractic community, Brian is well aware of the clinical wisdom of the nation’s practitioners. He’s looking forward to experiencing it again under the Big Tent.
Reacquainting with Australia’s chiropractic profession is an exciting opportunity for Brian, who has many old friends and colleagues he’s overdue to catch up with. Before the pleasure comes the business of crafting and refining his presentations for Conference attendees.
Brian reveals one of his presentations will consider the body of research attributable to the chiropractic profession, highlighting the breadth and excellence of chiropractic research.
“What I anticipate is that even the most enthusiastic advocate of chiropractic will have seriously underestimated the quantity and quality of work conducted by chiropractor-researchers,” he says.
“The scientific basis for what the average chiropractor does in their clinic every day is unmatched by any other health sciences profession.”
He’s optimistic his session will reaffirm a reality chiropractic practitioners and patients alike know: chiropractic works.
“And we all know it works,” he adds.
“At this point, the evidence in support of mainstream chiropractic practices is so overwhelming that one cannot imagine any research study that would undermine that position.”
“However, in Australia, as elsewhere, chiropractic remains relatively marginalised. Why is that so? I would say that chiropractic works, but what does not work is the way in which we communicate that to those who shape our health care systems.”
“When chiropractic is criticised these days, it is usually on the basis that we are unscientific, not on the basis that we are ineffective.”
“I think it is, therefore, important that our profession has a clear sense of just how scientific we are so that we can communicate that to others.”
As for who will benefit most from his session, Brian believes those with a curious nature, regardless of age or experience, will extract the most from hearing him talk in Adelaide.
“The job for all of us presenting is to give the audience/participants something that they could not get elsewhere or from somebody else,” he says.
“While we certainly want to reinforce our colleagues’ enthusiasm for chiropractic, we also want to provide genuinely new perspectives to keep that enthusiasm for professional development growing.”
Don’t miss your chance to see Dr Brian Budgell in action at this year’s ‘Big Tent’ Conference. Register now and save hundreds with Early Bird Pricing!