Carlos A. Pardo-Villamizar, MD

Lauren Brennan is a family nurse practitioner with advanced clinical expertise in gastroenterology and a strong foundation in surgical and medical nursing. She has experience providing high-quality, patient-centered care to individuals with a wide range of acute and chronic gastrointestinal conditions in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Her clinical approach is rooted in evidence-based practice, holistic care and a commitment to health equity and inclusion. Brennan earned a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from St. Petersburg College in Florida and a Master of Science degree in nursing from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree with an executive leadership focus and a post-master’s certificate in nursing education from The Johns Hopkins University. Throughout her career, Brennan has held leadership roles, contributed to quality improvement initiatives, and served on interdisciplinary committees focused on infection control, staff development and patient safety.

David Rastall is a physician scientist and fellowship-trained neurologist specializing in neuro-visual and vestibular disorders. He diagnoses and treats patients with eye movement disorders and dizziness resulting from ataxia, cerebellar damage, brainstem damage, or peripheral vestibular lesions, with symptoms including vertigo, nystagmus, oscillopsia, diplopia and dizziness. Dr. Rastall helped develop and participates in the teledizzy initiative, a transformative approach to medicine incorporating data science and cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning and counterfactual analysis to efficiently pair dizzy patients with emergencies at remote locations with world-leading Johns Hopkins vestibular neurologists. Among the procedures he offers are video-oculography, video head impulse test, quantitative sensory and motor testing for ocular alignment, photo funds evaluation and video ocular counter-roll evaluation. Dr. Rastall obtained his doctorate in osteopathic medicine from Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he remained for residency training in neurology and ophthalmology. He underwent fellowship training in vestibular and ocular motor oto-neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Rastall’s research interests include developing machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches to increase diagnostic accuracy of eye movement disorders, chronic dizziness, and neurodegenerative disorders; developing medical “spy-ware" to allow passive, interaction-free longitudinal patient measurements; and creation of an eye movement and behavioral “behaviorome" in healthy aging and neurodegeneration. He is also interested in ocular motor phenotyping of healthy aging, neurodegeneration and cerebellar disease.

Dr. Ankur Butala specializes in the care of persons with complex neuropsychiatric conditions, including persons with advanced Parkinson Disease or other movement or neurodegenerative disorders. Upon graduating from a selective Physician-Scientist program at Albany Medical College, he joined the University of Massachusetts in an uncommon residency in both Neurology and Psychiatry. Dual-trained neuropsychiatrists such as Dr. Butala have experience with: Parkinson Disease and atypical Parkinsonism, Huntington Disease, Ataxia, Dystonia, early-onset dementia, traumatic brain injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, autism spectrum disorders, medication refractory mood and psychotic disorders, epilepsy and functional neurological disorders. In residency, he developed an interest in circuit models of brain function and how non-pharmacological approaches such as Neuromodulation and brain stimulation may be used to address treatment-resistant conditions. Consequently, he joined Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as a Clinical and Research Fellow from 2015 to 2018, where he developed a skill set including deep brain stimulation, non-invasive brain stimulation (tDCS), and measurement of eye movements.Currently, Dr. Butala's clinical and research interests are in diagnosing and managing persons with advanced Parkinson's Disease, movement disorders, and neuropsychiatric conditions using neuromodulation, cannabinoids, and entheogens. He has ongoing multidisciplinary collaborations with colleagues at the Whiting School of Engineering - Center of Speech & Language Processing in using Machine-Learning Models and Artificial Intelligence to improve the detection and diagnosis of Movement and Neuropsychiatric disorders.