University of Indianapolis

NeuroHope Presents at APTA National Conference

February 21, 2020/in Annoucements, General Blog Posts, News/by Chris Leeuw

The NeuroHope story was presented at the American Physical Therapy Association’s (APTA) Combined Sections Meeting in Denver, Colorado on February 14th!

Preliminary findings of our ongoing research study were shared at the APTA’s annual summit where thousands of physical therapists and researchers from around the globe gather to share the latest developme nts and practices in the physical therapy world.

It was an exciting opportunity to showcase our unique mission and program. NeuroHope was created with a model that defies traditional healthcare. Instead of relying solely on insurance reimbursement and billable hours – we focus on patient access and affordability above everything else. Maximal recovery from catastrophic injuries depend on this standard of care, but adequate access to therapy, exercise, and expensive rehabilitative technology is difficult for healthcare systems to provide. The irony: knowledge, science, and rehabilitative technology is advancing, but patient access is declining.

Most people recovering from life-changing spinal cord and brain injuries stop therapy when insurance coverage is depleted, which may only be a few months following injury. The severity of neurologic injuries, the length of time needed to recover from them, and the lack of long-term quality of life programs in most communities leaves a void in care that NeuroHope was created to address.

Thanks to support from the Indiana Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Fund, NeuroHope has partnered with a research team from the University of Indianapolis to track the long-term outcome measures of patients that have access to NeuroHope’s model of ongoing care. Since January 2018, patients attending NeuroHope have been evaluated extensively to monitor their motor fuction, physical activities and health-related quality of life during participation in our program. Patients with varying degrees of injuries, ages, and length of time since the injury, all participate in a rigorous 2-hour evaluation that consists of tests that measure neurologic function, balance, range of motion, reach, endurance, and walking, in addition to surveys to monitor their satisfaction and quality of life. Tests are repeated every 3 to 6 months to evaluate progress.

Patients are being tracked through the summer of 2020 in order to capture the clearest picture we can, but even now, preliminary results have shown improvements across most outcomes. In the coming months, we look forward to sharing complete results over a three-year period to gauge the effect that continued therapy and aggressive exercise may have for both recent and chronically injured patients recovering from neurologic injury.

Thanks to our supporters and partners, we are making affordable rehabilitation a reality!

Welcome To Our New Home at the Incrediplex!

December 21, 2017/in Annoucements, General Blog Posts/by Chris Leeuw

It has been a busy fall of packing and renovating – but our relocation is complete and we are thrilled to be seeing clients at our new gym at 6002 Sunnyside Rd. We are proud to have fostered a partnership with the Incrediplex at their sports and entertainment complex. Their team did a tremendous job with construction.

The new space features a front desk / waiting zone, two large therapy areas, therapy offices, FES station, gym space for our wheelchair gym, NuSteps, cable machine and SCIFit Arm/leg cycle, a PowerPlate for vibration training, adaptable Total Gym, and more. Additionally, there is an area cut specifically for our gait training treadmill system when it arrives later this year and we become an affiliate of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network.

We are now open 5 days per week, and are excited to ramp up scheduling as we begin a research program with the University of Indianapolis in the coming months!

Breakthrough in SCI Research Restores Movement – NeuroHope Partners with the NRN

December 6, 2017/in Annoucements, General Blog Posts/by Chris Leeuw

An announcement at Frazier Rehabilitation Institute is sending shockwaves through the spinal cord injury community. Andrew Meas, a 32-year old man who sustained a complete spinal cord injury in a motorcycle crash in 2006 is showing the world he can voluntarily move his legs. It is the culmination of a 44-month long research project involving electrical stimulation and extensive therapy led by Dr. Susan Harkema, Director of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network (NRN).

In 2018 NeuroHope of Indiana will become a proud member of the NRN, and 1 of 11 sites in the world collecting data its data.

In 2012, Meas was one of four individuals that Harkema and her team implanted with an electronic device. A stimulator was placed directly on his spinal cord that sent signals straight to his central nervous system. The researchers called it epidural stimulation, and the results made global headlines in 2014. They found that when the stimulation was turned on, VOLUNTARY movement occurred in all four individuals – a totally unexpected result.

In the three years since, Meas has been participating in aggressive rehabilitation and further research using a combination of stimulation from his implanted device and high-speed treadmill training. All of which led to the exciting announcement that after years of training, VOLUNTARY movement has occurred even with the stimulation device turned OFF!

Read the article in Newsweek here, and the official study here.

Dr. Harkema and Andrew Meas talk about the findings in the video below:

Dr. Harkema’s work is based on the physiology of the spinal cord and its capacity to “remember” and recover. She has brought her ideas to the Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network (NRN), a collaboration of rehabilitation centers that focus on exploring the treatment of neurologic injury through activity-based therapies – a very specific form of task-specific interventions below the injury level.

In 2018, NeuroHope will become the 11th NRN affiliate in the world, and one of only 4 independent sites outside of a major rehabilitation hospital system. NRN sites continue to build upon Dr. Harkema’s work in electrical stimulation by exclusively incorporating Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) into some treatment plans. NMES is non-invasive stimulation that uses electrodes on the skin at exclusive parameters to target the central nervous system.

In the coming months NeuroHope staff will be trained directly by Dr. Harkema and her team in the activity-based interventions the NRN performs. We will be sending data to the NRN, as well as collecting outcome and patient satisfaction measures with a researchers from the University of Indianapolis.

The success of the epidural stimulation implant in Andrew Meas and the work of the NRN provides new knowledge and a new diving off point for future discoveries in treating – and someday curing – spinal cord injury. It is an exciting time for neurologic research, and we are honored to be a part of it!

NeuroHope Moving to the Incrediplex!

September 16, 2017/in Annoucements, General Blog Posts/by Chris Leeuw

It’s official! NeuroHope is moving October 1st! Walls are being torn down, ceilings altered, and construction is underway to provide our clinic with a new home as we ramp up and expand services for 2018.

We are proud to partner with the Incrediplex, a 4-acre sports and entertainment complex in Lawrence (6002 Sunnyside Rd.) that is building our new gym attached to their existing wellness center on the east end of their “Incredible” campus. The dream we had four years ago to open a hybrid rehabilitation / wellness clinic for people living with neurologic injury is becoming a reality this fall. In moments like these, when the work and sacrifices made over the years come to fruition, we pinch ourselves and hope we don’t wake up!

We are also honored to have been formally invited by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network (NRN) to join their prestigious collaboration of rehabilitation / wellness centers. NRN sites implement state-of-the-art therapy and wellness programs tied to evidence-based practices uniquely performed and researched at the best rehabilitation centers in the world, including The Shepherd Center (Atlanta), Craig Hospital (Denver), Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation (New Jersey), and Frazier Rehabilitation Institute (Louisville).

NeuroHope will be the 12th NRN site, and the 6th independent gym in the world (not tied to a clinical hospital system) that will be participating in unique NRN programs and providing patients with affordable post-acute therapy and exercise.

We have already started to practice some of the NRN’s exclusive Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) sessions. These pictures show two of our rockstar patients (Nathan and Mark) standing while hooked up to 12 channels of stimulation. The bottom picture shows the NRN treadmill system that will be at NeuroHope after our move!

As a NRN satellite, we will be collecting data at NeuroHope and will be teaming with researchers from the University of Indianapolis to track outcome measures and program satisfaction.

(Much more on THIS exciting development soon!)

When NeuroHope opened its doors two years ago, our vision including bringing a NRN site to Indiana. It seemed far-fetched. This fall, it too, will be a reality thanks to support from organizations like the University of Indianapolis, the OrthoIndy Foundation and our many sponsors and supporters.

We are ready!

NeuroHope Nominated for 2017 Health Care Heroes Award

January 26, 2017/in Annoucements, General Blog Posts/by Chris Leeuw

The physical therapy team at NeuroHope has been selected as one of three nominees in “Community Achievement” for the Indianapolis Business Journal’s 2017 Health Care Heroes Award!

NeuroHope was created three years ago because of a simple realization: Many patients recovering from neurologic injury are discharged from rehabilitation too soon with no place to continue their recovery. Insurance caps therapy coverage after only a few months and traditional healthcare clinics are unable to continue treatment at an affordable out-of-pocket rate.

NeuroHope’s Director of Therapy, Nora Foster (DPT), and her team of Donna Peterson (PTA) and Sara Sale (DPT) have embarked on a path to fill this void in care. From a purely altruistic motive, and with no experience in healthcare administration, they became devoted to creating a clinic that operates beyond traditional, insurance-based services.

NeuroHope integrates insurance visits with extremely discounted private-pay rates in order to provide patients with long-term care. This involves combining aggressive therapy with wellness goals to maximize recovery and improve quality of life.

In two short years, NeuroHope’s vision has proven successful. The team has created a non-profit outpatient healthcare clinic from scratch, become credentialed with Medicare/Medicaid and commercial insurance, and works with the Krannert School of Physical Therapy at the University of Indianapolis to provide students with Internship and volunteer opportunities. NeuroHope’s patient-centric model was also the catalyst behind a 2015 change in Indiana law to help fund long-term rehabilitation programs.

Most importantly, Nora and her team have helped 36 patients, ranging from spinal cord injury, brain injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and cerebral palsy on along their road to recovery.

This recognition is well-deserved for Nora, Sara, and Donna. Not only for the work they have done to launch NeuroHope, but for the devotion they have shown to all of their patients over the their entire careers.

The 2017 Health Care Heroes Awards will be presented at a special IBJ breakfast at the Hilton Conrad on Friday, March 3rd.

Click here for more information.

UIndy Intern Jake Roop Joins our Team!

January 18, 2017/in Annoucements, General Blog Posts/by Chris Leeuw

We announce interns with blog posts around here, so it’s my pleasure to welcome Jake Roop on-board!

Jake is no stranger to NeuroHope. He was one of our first student volunteers and has been a fantastic help to our therapy team for the last ten months. His internship lasts until May, after which, he will earn his Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science with an emphasis on Pre-Physical Therapy.

Jake is a native of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, was a member of the UIndy football team, and will be attending the Krannert School of Physical Therapy at the University of Indianapolis this the fall.

Welcome Jake!

NeuroHope Wins Inaugural ‘Care Innovation’ Award

September 26, 2016/in Annoucements, General Blog Posts/by Chris Leeuw

NeuroHope was thrilled and humbled to be honored by the Foundation for Complex Healthcare Solutions as the first ever recipient of the Care Innovation Award!

NeuroHope Founder and Executive Director Chris Leeuw accepted the award at the sold-out Emerald Gala at the Eiteljorg Museum on September 16th.

The Foundation for Complex Healthcare Solutions supports programs in central Indiana that are devoted to providing effective and efficient care for high-cost patients. Their goal is to help organizations develop better ways to care for the most expensive healthcare conditions. The Foundation is a supporter of NeuroHope’s mission to provide extended, affordable care for individuals recovering from traumatic injury, and its Board of Directors unanimously chose NeuroHope to be the inaugural recipient of the award.

“Spinal cord injury, brain injury, and stroke are extremely high cost injuries from the perspective of insurers and healthcare providers”, Leeuw said to attendees. “As a result, time spent in recovery at the inpatient and outpatient level is limited. Two-thirds of neurologically injured individuals are re-admitted to the hospital within one year of discharge. At NeuroHope, we are creating a comprehensive approach to rehabilitation that blends physical therapy with affordable wellness programs to maximize recovery and improve quality of life.”

Since NeuroHope opened in February of 2015, the clinic has partnered with the University of Indianapolis, hired physical therapists, become credentialed with Medicare / Medicaid and commercial insurance, and was the catalyst behind a change in Indiana law to fund affordable recovery programs. Most importantly, it has helped 31 patients on their road to recovery.

The clinic’s launch and early success would not be possible without support from forward-thinking entities like the Foundation for Complex Healthcare Solutions, which help NeuroHope offset the cost of the supplementary care it provides its patients.

It was a night to be remembered at the Eiteljorg, and NeuroHope was truly privileged for the recognition!

July 27 – Save the Date: 2nd Annual Open House!

June 12, 2016/in Annoucements, General Blog Posts/by Chris Leeuw

It has been an eventful 2016 at NeuroHope! With your support and generosity our clinic has become a reality.

Celebrate with us! NeuroHope will host its 2nd Annual Open House on the evening of Wednesday July 27th!
(6:00 – 8:00 in the gym at 901 Shelby Street in Fountain Square)

Please join us for a brief evening of food, drinks, prizes, and recognition of the amazing staff, clients, and donors that have helped NeuroHope come to fruition. You are part of a movement that has created a functioning and innovative outpatient healthcare clinic from scratch. That’s right! I said OUTPATIENT!

We are now officially certified with Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance companies to become the FIRST and ONLY outpatient clinic in Indianapolis that provides extended care and affordable rates for patients.

We are thrilled to be able to accept insurance, but unlike traditional healthcare providers, our care goes well beyond what insurance allows. We aren’t afraid to sacrifice a higher-paying insurance reimbursement for an affordable private-pay rate.

This is what makes us unique. And, this is why our rent-free relationship with the University of Indianapolis, and support from donors like you is so important.

Strides over the last year:

Expanded into new space on the 3rd floor of the Southeast Community Services Building
Secured new therapy mats, parallel bars, and standing frames for our clients
Worked with 23 clients since we opened doors!
Credentialed with CMS and private insurance
Press! Read our Indianapolis Monthly article here. And our IBJ write-up here.

We are also proud to have been the catalyst behind a change in Indiana law that will help fund long-term rehab programs such as ours in the future!

We hope to be successful in securing a state grant that will let us open full-time in the next year, but in the meantime, we remain in fundraising mode to keep our services strong.

So, please continue to spread the word! Bridge funding will be a key to our success.

In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you on July 27th!

NeuroHope to Open in Fountain Square

July 24, 2014/in Annoucements, General Blog Posts/by Chris Leeuw

Happy to announce that NeuroHope will have a future home at the Sutphin Center located in the Fountain Square neighborhood!

This is an exciting development as we begin to lay the foundation for the first extended neuro-rehabilitation facility in Indiana, and we are thrilled at the opportunity to begin at the Sutphin Center for Clinical Care, which is operated by the University of Indianapolis. This space will help facilitate a collaboration with UIndy faculty at the prestigious Krannert School of Physical Therapy. NeuroHope will be launching a capital fundraising campaign next week to gather the resources needed to open doors and begin operation by January 2015.

This is a huge step for NeuroHope. We now have a wellness room, a location to begin individual workouts with our Physical Therapist Nora Foster, and a place to provide access to Functional Electrical Stimulation, a standing frame, and more. It’s a perfect jumping off point as we build our services and funding.

Official campaign details and promotional video – coming next week!

Help us open our doors! Stay tuned.

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Happy to announce that NeuroHope will have a future home at the Sutphin Center located in the Fountain Square neighborhood!

Official campaign details and promotional video – coming next week!