For Brett Winchester, DC (’03), a career in chiropractic has never been about reaching a finish line. More than two decades after graduating from Logan University, he still approaches each day with the same goal: learn something new, improve his craft and help move the profession forward.
“My personal mission statement is to always be pushing the limits of what’s possible for the present-day chiropractor,” Dr. Winchester said.
A Chesterfield, Missouri native, Dr. Winchester didn’t initially plan on becoming a chiropractor. He earned a business degree from the University of Missouri and was interested in sports medicine after experiencing sports injuries himself. His career plans changed when his brother-in-law, Logan alumnus Bart Coleman, DC (‘YEAR), invited him to spend a day shadowing him.
“I immediately knew that I wanted to be a chiropractor as I witnessed his results with his patients and athletes,” he said.
When it came time to choose a chiropractic school, Logan was an easy decision. Growing up nearby, Dr. Winchester was familiar with the university, but his first campus visit confirmed it.
“I remember driving up to campus and seeing students outside playing sports, studying, working out and just having fun,” he said. “It was a great vibe that I will never forget.”
At Logan, Dr. Winchester found more than a chiropractic education. He found a group of close friends — many of whom later stood beside him at his wedding — and mentors. He served as president of the Motion Palpation Institute club and played soccer at Chiro Games and in leagues throughout St. Louis.
He also discovered an approach to chiropractic education that continues to influence him today.
“Logan has a very broad spectrum of chiropractic education that allowed students to pick their pathway depending on what techniques and philosophies resonated with each particular student,” Dr. Winchester said. “I always respected that because chiropractic is such a broad career with so many different possibilities.”
His relationship with Logan didn’t end when he graduated in April 2003. In fact, he began teaching a chiropractic rehabilitation lab at the university before officially earning his degree and went on to teach at Logan for nearly 20 years.
At the same time, his career was expanding well beyond the classroom.
Dr. Winchester began teaching for the Motion Palpation Institute immediately after graduation and continues to teach for the organization today. Over the course of his career, he has taught more than 500 weekend seminars around the world, contributed to published research and authored two chapters in Rehabilitation of the Spine: A Patient-Centered Approach.
His interest in sports medicine also took him into professional athletics. From 2014 to 2018, he served as a team chiropractor for the St. Louis Cardinals, an experience that helped establish his work in Major League Baseball. Today, he consults with more than half of MLB teams and works with collegiate athletic programs as well as individual teams and athletes across the MLB, NHL and MLS.
Despite those accomplishments, ask Dr. Winchester what makes him proudest and he comes back to patient care.
“I look at every day as a chance to get myself better,” he said. “Your best treatment will be your last treatment because it will encompass all those years of experience.”
That philosophy is evident at Winchester Spine & Sport, his 8,000-square-foot multidisciplinary practice in Troy, Missouri. The practice brings together medical doctors, chiropractors, athletic trainers, personal trainers, functional medicine and fitness under one roof.
It has also become a learning environment. Students, chiropractors and other medical professionals travel from around the world to observe the practice’s model of care. Through its extensive preceptor program, Winchester Spine & Sport has trained hundreds of future chiropractors, including many Logan students.
For Dr. Winchester, maintaining that connection is part of being a Logan alumnus.
“I feel responsible to keep a heavy influence on the school and the chiropractic students at Logan,” he said.
Mentorship is particularly meaningful because Dr. Winchester credits his own mentors with helping his career grow in ways he couldn’t have anticipated as a student.
“I think you always believe in yourself and what is possible in your career, but I would have never dreamed it would have been this expansive,” he said. “I feel very fortunate to have had the right mentors in my career along the way.”
Now he has the opportunity to provide that same guidance and experience to students coming behind him. His advice is simple: get involved, seek out hands-on experiences and don’t be afraid of setbacks.
“Think of your career as a journey,” he said. “There are no failures, just learning opportunities.”
More than 20 years after arriving at Logan, Dr. Winchester remains excited about where that journey can take the next generation of chiropractors. While technology and artificial intelligence continue to change health care, he believes there is something fundamental about chiropractic that technology cannot replicate.
“Even with artificial intelligence, nothing can ever replace the hands-on personal touch of chiropractic,” he said. “The best diagnostic tool ever invented is the human hand.”
And for the alumni who helped build the profession he loves, Dr. Winchester has one more challenge.
“The goal should always be to leave your profession a little better than the way you originally entered it.”