211: How To Approach Pain Neuroscience Education In Neuro With Dr. Adriaan Louw, PT, PhD
Release Date: 04/29/2024
327: Hope, Connection, And Care Coordination: Russell Meyerowitz On The Parkinson's Wellness Fund And Raya Health - Tools For Today
I Love Neuro
What happens to a family when "wellness" stops meaning saunas and cold plunges and starts meaning keeping the lights on? In this episode, host Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS, talks with Russell Meyerowitz, founder of the Parkinson's Wellness Fund, about how the needs of families living with Parkinson's have shifted from health-and-wellness support toward urgent emergency relief — and what that means for the clinicians who serve them. Russell shares why his organization issues no-judgment relief grants for everything from walkers and ramps to groceries and utility bills, why they're now fielding...
info_outline
326: Why Standard Heart Rate Formulas Fail People With Parkinson's With Cielita Lopez-Lennon, PT, DPT, NCS
I Love Neuro
Are the heart rate formulas we've been using actually working for our patients with Parkinson's? In this episode, hosts Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS, and Claire McLean, PT, DPT, NCS, discuss with Cielita Lopez-Lennon, PT, PhD candidate in Rehabilitation Science at the University of Utah, her recently published research on refining maximal heart rate estimation for people with Parkinson's disease. The conversation digs into why standard formulas like 220 minus age systematically overestimate max heart rate for people with autonomic dysfunction, what chronotropic incompetence actually means in...
info_outline
325: Falls Training For Parkinson's: Why Patients Are Demanding It With Naomi Casiro, BSc., MPT
I Love Neuro
What would it look like if your patients stopped fearing the floor? In this episode, hosts Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS, and Claire McLean, PT, DPT, NCS, discuss with Naomi Casiro, physiotherapist and founder of Neuro Fit Academy, what happened when her falls training sessions at World Parkinson Congress drew over 100 attendees in a room designed for 40. They dig into why patients with Parkinson's are starting to demand falls training themselves, and how that overwhelming response reflects a massive gap in what clinicians are currently being taught. Naomi recently launched her FMF —...
info_outline
324: When Robots Amplify Mistakes To Drive Recovery: Error Augmentation In Neuro Rehab With BioXtreme
I Love Neuro
In this episode, host Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS interviews BioXtreme CEO Eyal Samuel Shachar and researcher Dr. James Patton, PhD about BioXtreme’s robotics-based neurorehabilitation devices, with a focus on their Plaxtream hand system. Inspired by founder Nini Bluman’s experience helping his father recover hand function after a stroke, Plaxtream combines robotic hardware, engaging game-based activities, and an AI-driven, adaptive error augmentation approach to improve grasp, release, pronation, and supination. Dr. Patton explains how error augmentation—strategically amplifying...
info_outline
323: Before We Left for Phoenix: Our World Parkinson Congress 2026 Preview
I Love Neuro
In this episode hosts, Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS and Claire McLean, PT, DPT, NCS share their excitement and plans for attending the 2026 World Parkinson Congress (WPC) in Phoenix, Arizona, a unique international conference that brings together people with Parkinson’s, care partners, therapists, physicians, and researchers. Drawing on their past experiences at WPC in Montreal, Portland, and Kyoto, they describe how special it is to attend this event as a full team this year, staying together in an Airbnb and connecting with colleagues and members from around the world. They highlight what...
info_outline
322: Find Work-Life Balance With Alignment, Not Productivity Tools
I Love Neuro
Is work-life balance an elusive concept you have yet to master while running your life and neuro biz? In this episode, hosts Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS and Claire McLean, PT, DPT, NCS discuss the topic with NeuroBiz Coach, Emily Duval Ledger. Many clinicians start businesses to escape traditional job burnout but then recreate the same patterns by overworking and glorifying busyness. In the show we talk about recognizing when “busy” becomes unproductive, using tools like time-blocking, planners, and realistic daily priorities to focus on high-impact tasks and reduce urgency overload, but,...
info_outline
321: How To Use AI Tools To Get Time Back Even When You’re Not Techy With Shanté “Movement Maestro” Cofield, PT, DPT, OCS
I Love Neuro
Dive into AI tools in your personal life, work life and business by learning what to use, how to use it and how NOT to use it. In this episode, hosts Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS and Claire McLean, PT, DPT, NCS talk with physical-therapist-turned-entrepreneur Dr. Shanté “Movement Maestro” Cofield, PT, DPT, OCS about what AI is and how it can practically support health and fitness professionals. Shanté explains AI in simple terms as powerful computer programs called large language models (LLMs) that use math and probability to predict the most likely next word, making it possible for us to...
info_outline
320: AI Documentation As A Game-Changer For Neuro Rehab: How-To
I Love Neuro
Has your clinic adopted AI for documentation yet? If not (or if so!) check out this episode to learn about how it can transform your time and allow you to do your job unfettered. Hosts Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS and Claire McLean, PT, DPT, NCS interview Sparky instructor Jamie Haines, PT, DScPT, NCS about how AI-powered documentation is transforming her life in the clinic, and how without it she would not have returned to the clinic after being in academia. Neuro physical therapists have long struggled to balance hands-on care with time-consuming paperwork. In this conversation, Jamie, a PT...
info_outline
319: How And Why You Should Train Neuro Clients In More Positions With Dr. JJ Mowder-Tinney, PT, PhD, NCS
I Love Neuro
In this episode, hosts Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS and Claire McLean, PT, DPT, NCS and JJ Mowder-Tinney, PT, PhD, NCS discuss the critical but under-addressed role of transitional movements in neurologic rehab, especially for people with conditions like MS, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and spinal cord injury. In the show we’ll highlight how traditional therapy often focuses on sitting, standing, and walking, while many real-life challenges involve moving through positions such as supine, prone, quadruped, kneeling, and floor-to-stand. Claire and JJ share clinical experiences showing that...
info_outline
318: Using RTM With Neuro Clients For Increased Revenue, Motivation, And Data Metrics To Justify Therapy
I Love Neuro
Want to learn more about Remote Therapeutic Monitoring in neuro? In this episode, host Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS speaks with physical therapist and former clinic owner turned digital health leader Sarah Anestam, PT, MSPT and practice owner Katie Wadland, PT, DPT, GCS about how the OneStep app and remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM) are transforming outpatient and home-based rehab. Sarah explains how OneStep uses smartphone sensors to turn everyday walking into objective gait and fall risk data, giving clinicians “gait lab in a pocket” insight into how patients move in real-world...
info_outlineDo you work with people who have pain AND neurologic conditions? In our world it would be rare to find someone who doesn’t have at least a few patients or clients who experience pain either as a result of their diagnosis or even pain that is completely unrelated but persists. In this episode we had the privilege of picking the brain of one of the best pain neuroscience educators around, Dr. Adriaan Louw, PT, PhD, senior faculty, pain science director and vice-president of faculty experience for Evidence in Motion. As a leader in the field of pain neuroscience, Adriaan has authored and co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles related to spinal disorders and pain science. If you’ve ever seen him teach at a conference his courses are the ones with the overflowing rooms for a reason: He knows his stuff! And clinicians are hungry for the knowledge and skills that will help people with pain feel better and return to function again. We asked Adriaan the best ways to incorporate pain neuroscience education (PNE) into practice when working with people with complex histories. He discussed the importance of both education and an approach to function as well as how to identify who is ready for change regarding their pain. You’ll learn key outcome assessments you should be using for your patients who have pain and how to create a balance of addressing the pain and progressing function in therapy sessions. Assessments like the Central Sensitization Inventory Scale, Fear Avoidance Belief Questionnaire and Pain Catastrophization Survey can help you identify who will benefit the most from PNE. You’ll also learn how language matters and which words to use and which words to avoid when describing pain and other medical conditions as they can impact the pain someone is experiencing. We discuss how to approach a person who feels like their pain is completely physical as well as how much time or effort to dedicate to incorporating PNE in sessions vs other activities and with which patients. You’ll learn this and so much more in the episode!
Resources mentioned in the episode (Note, some require permission from authors. Links will give you the information needed to request)
Central Sensitization Inventory
Fear Avoidance Belief Questionnaire
Sticks and Stones: The Impact of Language on Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation
Medbridge courses with Adriaan Louw
whyyouhurt.com free videos for clinicians and patients
OPTP books and resources by Addriaan Louw
Join the NeuroSpark waitlist to be the first to hear when we open again! Dr. Louw will be a presenter inside NeuroSpark in the upcoming quadrimester Summer 2024!