Are You Ready to Use Brain Imaging for a More Personalised Neurological Recovery?

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Hi, I’m Dr Ettie Ben-Shabat:

  • Neuro Rehab Clinician for 30 years
  • Neuro Rehab Educator who Trained 200+ Clinicians Globally
  • Researcher with a PhD in Brain Imaging

Ettie is giving a brain imaging in rehabilitation talk to a large audience in a conference, with brain images in the background

I Help Clinicians and Clients / Patients Extract Rehab Info from Brain Images.

Rehabilitation information is often overlooked in radiology reports because of their diagnostic focus.

However, important rehab info is available to clinicians who analyse the brain images, because every person has a different lesion.

Therefore, precise analysis of the lesions enables clinicians to:

  • Give their clients/patients realistic hopes
  • Optimise treatment efficiency, and
  • Deliver more personalised neurological rehabilitation.

My work has been featured in:

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Free Training – Brain Imaging in Rehabilitation

Do you struggle to fully understand the radiology report? Can’t find the information that you are looking for?

In this mini-course I teach you how to get the most out of the radiology report. Enjoy videos, case studies and resources that will enable you to understand the radiology report like never before.

Course banner with an image of a laptop computer open with a report on the screen and an image of Ettie

Here is What Clinicians Say About My Brain Imaging Courses and Seminars:

“Ettie is an incredible teacher, and extremely passionate about what she does, and this translates directly into the quality and value…”

“…rich in knowledge and practical applications…”

“…I always became a little overwhelmed with it all…her systematic approach to teaching it step by step & the little cheat sheets help make the learning so much easier…”

What is Unique About BRAC?

For Clients / Patients

Your 1st Step is to Get a Copy of  Your Brain Scans. Discover How To:

For Clinicians

Learn a practical system for finding invaluable rehab info in the brain scans.

You May Be Wondering:

Radiologists specialise in diagnostic imaging, so they will be able to teach you brain imaging for diagnostic purposes. However, they won’t be able to teach you brain imaging for rehabilitation purposes. Radiologists often refer to themselves as pathologists without microscopes. Their role is to analyse the brain images to determine what looks normal and what looks abnormal. Based on these findings they suggest a likely pathology and a diagnosis. This information is required by the neurologists to decide on the best medical treatment.

On the other hand, you as a rehabilitation clinician often know the diagnoses of your clients. Your main interests are to find out how each lesion affects the function of each client, and the potential for recovery. Therefore diagnostic imaging is of limited value to you.

No, it doesn’t. The aim of the radiology report for a brain scan is to suggest the most likely diagnosis. Therefore the report focuses on pathology and differential diagnosis. The exact anatomical location of the lesion is of lesser importance. In contrast, you as a rehabilitation clinician want to know the exact location of the lesion, its extent, and its implication on function. This is often referred to as “clinician imaging” and this information is missing from the radiology report.

Yes, you do! This is because you will need to find information that is missing from the radiology report. That radiology report won’t have the anatomical specificity you need as a rehabilitation clinician. For this reason, you can’t rely on the report.

You know the saying “A picture is worth 1000 words”? Well, it applies to brain images too. It is challenging to describe the exact location of a lesion using words (in the radiology report). Let alone when it’s not the focus of the report!

There is no doubt that radiologists are the experts in diagnostic brain imaging, but when it comes to clinical imaging for rehabilitation, we need to develop our own expertise. That’s our responsibility.

This brain imaging training is for clinicians and therapists who work with neurological clients. Clients who had injuries to the brain, or illnesses of the brain. These clinicians are referred to as rehabilitation clinicians, and include:

  • Neuropsychologists
  • Clinical Psychologists
  • Nurses
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Physiotherapists
  • Rehabilitation consultants
  • Rehabilitation Registrars
  • Speech pathologists
  • Others

To be able to use brain imaging for rehabilitation purposes you need to be comfortable with:

  1. identifying every single structure on brain images,
  2. understanding the various types of brain images, and
  3. having a good grasp of how the brain works as a coordinated system.

Ideally the person who teaches you should have in-depth knowledge in these three areas as well as extensive clinical experience. It is one thing to have the theoretical knowledge, but another to have the practical knowledge. Furthermore to teach this topic well, you need the ability to put brain imaging into clinical context in a meaningful way.

I have extensive training (including a PhD) in neuroanatomy, brain imaging and brain function. I also have been a rehabilitation clinician since 1997. I believe that even the most complicated concept can be explained simply and I use simple language that every rehabilitation clinician can understand. My teaching is highly interactive (including live sessions) and rich in practical learning because at the end of the day you need to be able to apply the learning to your own clients.

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When you look at the images you can appreciate how far the lesion extends (superiorly – inferiorly, anteriorly – posteriorly and medially – laterally), and just as importantly, which anatomical structures are spared. This crucial level of detail is missing from the radiology reports.

If you have clinical imaging skills then you can deliver more targeted assessment and treatment. You’ll use detailed neuroanatomy knowledge to identify specific anatomical structures affected by the lesion. You’ll then use in-depth knowledge of current neuroscience, to predict the functional deficits a client may have.

Armed with this knowledge, you won’t need to follow the standard assessment form from start to end. Instead, you’ll be able to prioritise assessment from the start. Furthermore, you’ll be able to hone in earlier, and conduct more detailed assessment in areas of expected functional deficits.

Once you’ve assessed, then you’ll be able to deliver targeted treatment from your first session. For example, brain imaging can help you decide between compensatory or restorative therapies depending on the lesion location.

As a rehabilitation clinician you are often asked about recovery potential and discharge plan. These might be challenging questions to answer … Especially if the client is at an early stage of a significant injury, when they are not able to perform many tasks. In these circumstances, clinicians tend to give broad (and non-committal) answers.

When I ask clinicians about this, many say they rely on their clinical experience and “gut feeling”. But in fact, you can use brain imaging to help you determine the potential for recovery more accurately. Therefore predictions will be based less on “gut feeling” and more on evidence from the brain scans.

To determine the recovery potential, you need to have precise knowledge of anatomical structures, brain function and the individual features of your client’s brain. When you have a good understanding of these three components, you’ll be able to start predicting the potential outcome for your client. Of course brain imaging is not a crystal ball … but it’ll give you the tools to deliver early estimation that is more accurate than ever before! You will no longer need to shy away from outcome related questions or rely on your “gut feeling”.

Of course it is! You might doubt your ability to learn brain imaging if you had limited opportunities to do so. Yet, it is possible, and when you’ve learnt brain imaging in rehab context it’ll help you and your patients progress with intentional focus and motivation.

I KNOW that any rehabilitation clinicians can learn brain imaging. I have already taught hundreds of rehabilitation clinicians who are now using it all over the world. Head to the testimonials section to read more.