About me
I completed my chiropractic degree at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT-U) (formerly Phillip Institute of Technology (PIT) Melbourne, in 1982 and have since practised in a variety of settings from solo to group and inter-disciplinary settings. Whilst remaining constantly in private practice, since 2005 I have been a clinical supervisor, casual lecturer and placement manager at Murdoch University. My role has included supervising clinicians, campus clinic administration and coordinating clinical immersion outreach placements in rural and remote regions of Western Australia. These placements have been situated in state health department hospitals, Aboriginal Medical Services and University Departments of Rural Health (UDRH). In 2015, I completed a Master of Public Health (MPH) at the University of Western Australia by coursework and dissertation. From 2012- 2018, I was a Director and Vice-President on the state board of the Chiropractors Association of Australia (CAAWA) and I represented the CAA (now ACA) as a member of the Australian Chiropractic Research Network (ACORN) steering committee. From 2015-2017, I was a member of the CAA Tertiary Education & Research Committee. I have authored and presented scientific papers, book chapters, podium presentations and posters around the topics of chiropractic education, professional practice, evidence-based clinical decision-making for chiropractors and the role of complex research in chiropractic and manual care. I was awarded the 2016 delegates award for a podium presentation at the CAA National Conference & Scientific Symposium CAIRNS, Australia after being named 2013 Australian Chiropractor of the Year. From 2020-2024 I served on the Council on Chiropractic Education Australasia (CCEA) as the Chiropractic Board of Australia nominee, including as Deputy Chairperson. My current role is senior clinical educator in the School of Allied Health at Murdoch University.
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Highlights - Output
Journal article
Published 2025
Journal of patient safety, 21, 5, 329 - 338
Aim:
To report the rate and severity of adverse events (AEs) among patients receiving services at university-based chiropractic clinical placements over a 15-year period in Western Australia.
Methods:
Patients reporting AEs were identified from an incident register between 2008 and 2023. Details of all incidents were authenticated through extracted data from patient follow-up, clinical records, clinician reports, legal, and insurer advice and were graded (1-5) based on severity.
Results and Discussion:
Chiropractic services were delivered by 921 chiropractic students and supervised by 44 registered chiropractors during the 15-year time span in metropolitan, rural, and remote locations. Among 410,957 clinical encounters (CE) comprising 349,075 treatment sessions for 61,882 unique patients, 20 mild (grade 1) clinical AEs were identified, yielding a crude incidence rate of 4.87 per 100,000 (95% CI: 2.79-7.52), or 1:20,548 clinical encounters. Signs and symptoms of AEs were acute or exacerbated low back pain, neck pain, and mid-back pain/shoulder pain. The most common presenting complaints among the patients reporting an AE were pain in 3 spinal regions.
Conclusions:
The incidence of AEs associated with chiropractic care in this population corroborates previous studies that report the rate and severity of AEs to be rare and mild.