327: Hope, Connection, And Care Coordination: Russell Meyerowitz On The Parkinson's Wellness Fund And Raya Health - Tools For Today
Release Date: 07/20/2026
334: Aerobic Priming, RAS, OPTIMAL, And Overground Training: Small Shifts, Big Outcomes With Jamie Haines, PT, DScPT, NCS
I Love Neuro
What if the biggest gains in your patients' outcomes came from four small, free shifts you could start using tomorrow? In this episode, host Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS, talks with Jamie Haines, PT, DScPT, NCS, who recently left a long career as an associate professor at Central Michigan University for mobile concierge PT in Florida, where she treats patients with a wide range of neurologic conditions in their own environments. Jamie and Erin preview the "amplify your practice" framework, covering aerobic priming to get the nervous system ready to learn, rhythmic auditory stimulation and...
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333: Gadgets, Grasp, and Goals: Jenna Barber, MOT, OTR/L, BCPR, Talks Hand Recovery
I Love Neuro
How much hand function can come back after a neurologic injury, and how do you know whether to remediate or compensate? On this episode, host Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS, talks with Jenna Barber, MOT, OTR/L, BCPR, an occupational therapist who specializes in neurorehabilitation across acute care, inpatient, and outpatient settings. In the show you’ll learn how to assess fine motor deficits through activity analysis and standardized testing, the difference between remediation and compensation and when to use either. We’ll also discuss favorite tools like FES, focal vibration, and rocker...
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332: Can Transcutaneous Stimulation (TSS) Help Patients With Spinal Cord Injuries Improve? With Dr. Yi-Kai Lo, PhD and Rose Tilton, OTR/L, OTD
I Love Neuro
In this episode, host Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS, talks with returning guest Rose Tilton, OTR/L, OTD, an occupational therapist at Marquette University's Neuro Recovery Clinic, and new guest Dr. Yi-Kai Lo, PhD, CEO and co-founder of ANEUVO, about transcutaneous spinal stimulation (TSS) for people with spinal cord injury. Rose shares how she discovered TSS through her own research, became a clinical trial site investigator at Marquette, and now uses ANEUVO's ExaStim® device — a multi-channel electrode array system that can be individually programmed and timed to match specific functional...
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331: The First 30 Seconds: Winning Patient Trust On The Phone With Danny Bobrow, MBA
I Love Neuro
What if the biggest threat to your practice's growth isn't your marketing budget, but the way your team handles the very first phone call? Getting the phone to ring is necessary, but never sufficient. In this episode, host Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS, talks with Daniel A. "Danny" Bobrow, MBA — creator of The Art of First Impressions™ and The Persuasion Blueprint, and President of AIM Dental Marketing — about the three pillars of persuasive communication: caring, connection, and collaboration. Danny reframes the moments clinicians tend to fumble, like the "do you take my insurance?"...
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330: Working With The "Excluded" Patient: A Case Study Using Modified CIMT After Stroke With Briana Elson, MS, OTR/L, BCPR, CBIS
I Love Neuro
What do you do when the most evidence-based intervention you have is also the one your patient is "not allowed" to receive? Constraint-induced movement therapy has decades of research behind it, yet its exclusion criteria — especially around cognitive impairment — rule out a huge share of the stroke survivors clinicians actually see. In this episode, hosts Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS, and Claire McLean, PT, DPT, NCS, talk with neuro OT Briana Elson, MS, OTR/L, BCPR, CBIS, about her decision to try modified CIMT with an 86-year-old stroke patient who had significant cognitive impairment and...
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329: When the System Sends Them Home: Kim Williams-Feth, BSW, On Why Neuro Patients Need An Advocate
I Love Neuro
What happens to your neuro patients after they leave your care, and who's in their corner when the discharge falls apart? In this episode, host Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS, sits down with Kimberlie Williams-Feth, BSW, founder of Healthcare Survival Kit and a former hospital social work discharge planner who became an independent patient advocate after living the system's failures firsthand. When her husband's routine spinal fusion led to unexpected paralysis, Kimberlie navigated unsafe discharges, a "ghost network" of providers who didn't actually offer neuro care, and the months it took to...
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328: Adding Jet Fuel To Stroke Therapy With Mason Hearn, PT, DPT, NCS On Vivistim's Paired Vagus Nerve Stimulation
I Love Neuro
What if a patient who is years — even decades — out from their stroke could still make meaningful gains in their affected arm? In this episode, host Erin Gallardo, PT, DPT, NCS, talks with Mason Hearn, PT, DPT, NCS, about Vivistim, the FDA-approved paired vagus nerve stimulation system for chronic ischemic stroke, and why the "paired" piece — stimulation delivered in the same moment as intensive, task-specific therapy — is what makes it work. Mason breaks down the triple-blinded RCT behind the device, why patients an average of three years post-stroke saw two to three times greater...
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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...
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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...
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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_outlineWhat 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 two to three applications every 24 hours, and how those years on the front lines led to the launch of Raya Health, a subscription-based care-coordination platform that keeps a family's medications, appointments, documents, and clinical notes in one shared place. He and Erin dig into the continuity-of-care gaps neuro clinicians see every day, why care coordination is crucial, and the forthcoming "Ask Raya" feature for surfacing medication and exercise trends over time. It's a warm, candid conversation about being proactive instead of reactive — and about having a stranger in your corner when Parkinson's makes life feel like survival.
Links mentioned:
Parkinson's Wellness Fund — parkinsonswellnessfund.org
Raya Health — raya-health.com
Instagram: Parkinson's Wellness Fund and Raya Health HQ
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