From Air Force to Owner
Like many people in our field, I came to Neurodiagnostics in a round-about sort of way. I began my adult career as a cadet at the US Air Force Academy, focused on mastering Russian, completing a computer science degree, and looking forward to a career of service, filled with travel and cold war missions. A year later, a training accident landed me in tong traction with a broken neck, awaiting surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital (the military mecca of neurosurgery at the time). After surgery, a halo, and months of rehab behind and ahead of me, I begged my doctors to give me something to do.
“Well, we bought this machine” Dr. Early, the chairman of Neurosurgery said. “The machine is supposed to measure evoked potentials for us in real-time during brain surgery, but we can’t find anyone to run it because its computer requires programing to make it do the real-time part…”. And so, my long and rewarding career in this field began, with my introduction to a Nicolet Med 80 and a couple of articles describing intraoperative monitoring. The year was 1982.
Bethesda Naval Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery 1982-1983
The next year I received a medical discharge from the Air Force and accepted a job in Denver learning how to perform clinical EEGs, while developing an intraoperative monitoring program.
My passion for this field and my commitment to seeing us grow as a profession, eventually led to my involvement with ASET, and I was honored to serve as a board member and later, as president from 2009-2011. I had also transitioned to an administrative role in my career, working as the director of Neurophysiology at IU Health in Indianapolis. During that same time, in 2008-2009 with the support of a great team, we launched a first of its kind real-time, continuous ICU cEEG monitoring program staffed by registered EEG technologists, 24/7/365.
That incredible experience, seeing all the patients and families we impacted through provision of these cEEG monitoring services at multiple IU Health hospital locations, eventually led me to the position I held last year when COVID-19 changed the world.
At the end of 2019, with the help of the 4 courageous young ladies pictured here, we launched Next Gen Neuro, LLC with a passion to help hospitals large and small across the country provide cEEG monitoring remotely for their patients, so they can receive the care they need in place, close to the support of their loved ones.
Launch of Next Gen Neuro, LLC - November 2, 2019
Left to right: Alissa Finley, Amanda Ritchey, Leisha Osburn, Amila Puskar & Olivia Martinez
About Next Gen Neuro
Next Gen Neuro is a Women and Veteran Owned Small Business that accelerates better patient outcomes by delivering the full range of EEG service solutions in-place, on-demand and across the patient’s care journey. We address our partner’s service provision pain points by providing a reliable, specialized team of remote EEG technologists and interpreting physicians, and other on-site and support services, as needed, to reduce inter-hospital transfers and overhead costs. Contact us to learn more about how we can support your onsite team.