Dr. Michael Kilgard

And then we, the neuroscientists, come in with an engineering approach.

Rob Reneker built the tiny vagus nerve stimulator.

And then we found physicians and clinicians who were like mine and said, let's give this a shot.

And we didn't think it would work.

It happens to have worked and now there's a vagus nerve stimulator.

Full disclosure, I'm an inventor of and shareholder and my university requires me to disclose that, so I'll disclose that now in a company called Microtransplant, a little spin-off from my university, University of Texas at Dallas.

And now you can go to your doctor and he can write a prescription for you to get an implant to help your physical therapist do their job.

It's not like the physical therapist wasn't trying, they were working hard.

It's not like the person didn't want to get better.

But the idea that you could just practice your way out of something

Sometimes true.

Many people make a complete recovery from injuries, but many people don't.

And we now have this little boost, this little tool.

I think of it like a screwdriver.

If you're trying to fix your car, you don't have a screwdriver.

All the knowledge in the world won't do any good.

It doesn't do the fixing, but it gives you a new tool in the toolbox.

So now physical therapists and occupational therapists can give that extra boost because physical therapy is fundamentally kind of boring.

Move your fingers, move your fingers, move your fingers.

It's not really life or death.