David Dansereau, MSPT 
 smartmovespt.com 
david@ptcphysicaltherapy.com 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/daviddansereau/

David is a native New Englander and admittedly slightly obsessed with the Boston Marathon. His proactive background in healthcare and wellness began as a Registered Dietitian (RD) and sports nutritionist. In Providence, he worked in clinical and hospital based behavior change research roles as well as in a private practice where he co- founded a corporate fitness center and mobile consulting/contracting service with his spouse. In his corporate health research role David helped deploy on one of the very first generation motion sensor research studies in several manufacturing facilities in southern New England for capturing movement and verifying mobility (a study funded by the National Cancer Institute). In private practice, David was the first facility on the East Coast to offer accurate and clinically validated mobile metabolic testing. Both these early adopter technology experiences laid the foundation for his interest in the potential for using sensors and biofeedback to help give patients more control over their own health and recovery. These experiences now fuel his passion for digital-first healthcare technology adoption.

David recently celebrated his 21st anniversary as a PT in May with diverse experiences as a physical therapist in a variety of practice settings including acute care, private practice, home care as well as with actors and pro athletes as part of his hybrid model of remote and mobile private consulting. Most recently David has expanded his consultancy services to industry serving in clinical PT lead roles in sport performance, rehabilitation technology and digital therapeutic product development.   He currently serves as a clinical consultant to the University of Rhode Island's Wearable Biosensing Research Lab as an expert in telehealth and rehab technology.

On the patient advocacy side, as as stroke survivor at age 39, David became a co- founding member and Vice President of the patient led PFO Research Foundation. David is currently also a co-founding partner of EnableUs, a community for supporting life after stroke. David recently launched the Know Stroke Podcast with his EnableUs co-founder to expand the reach and voice of their stroke community.

David brought his health expertise to his final clinical consulting role he just completed as Wellness and Sports Services Director at a local PT clinic. 

In this role he led and managed their telehealth strategy during the pandemic with the deployment of SmartMovesPT Telehealth. During this tenure, David also built, tested and validated six self help wellness and pre-habilitation courses and led one remote clinical trial as the Principal Investigator for a privately funded research pilot for a home bilateral training device for stroke recovery.

Education and Advocacy
David received both his Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition & Dietetics (RD) from the University of Rhode Island as well as his Master of Science in Physical Therapy. He is also an Amazon best selling author in preventive medicine with his book,  Body in Balance. David is working on his second book, a “chicken soup” type book about survivor stories, his advocacy efforts to spread stroke awareness and provide more technology enabled solutions for survivorship, all embedded into the story of his own stroke journey.

As part of this stroke journey David serves at the national level as a stroke spokesperson for the American Heart / Stroke Association and is a PCORI Ambassador and a Stroke Patient Stakeholder in clinical research trials at Tuft’s Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.   He has also provided patient testimony before the FDA helping to shape future clinical trials to include the patient perspective and improve the patient voice in healthcare outcomes after stroke. David was one of the keynote presenters featured at the 22nd Annual Southern New England Rehabilitation Conference-Advances in Stroke Rehabilitation. David’s presentation entitled, “The Future of Home Stroke Recovery and Prevention: Where will Connected Health Tools Fit?” can be requested by reaching out to him on Linkedin.

Professionally, David serves as an expert guest presenter for Digital Medicine Society. He is a contributor to their common methodologies working group, has led the representation for the rehabilitation perspective and forum with BioHacking Village and the Department of Health and Human Services on telehealth, and recently presented at the IMPACCT mHealth in Clinical Trials 2020 Virtual Conference on Wearables in Physical Therapy. The replay of his presentation can be accessed here on his smartmovespt.com website. Finally, during the pandemic David was a contributor to the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM) Telediagnosis project and recently completed publication for the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).

Locally, David is involved in health initiatives in his community school district as a member of the school health and wellness committee in Cumberland,RI. He also does local philanthropy in his community with his brewery based running club. As well as drinking beer with his team he contemplates one more run at the Boston Marathon if he can step back up his training!

David’s Personal Message and CTA to All Rehabilitation Professionals: “I was in that original roughly “2%”* of physical therapists using telehealth for many years prior to the start, and exclusively throughout the pandemic. Here’s what I learned. Digital medicine has revolutionized healthcare, but we still don’t know what that means for the future of physical therapy. 

What we do know is physical therapists are the first point of care for many and they could potentially play a pivotal role in adopting digital products to optimize and advance patient care. We need a seat at the table if we are going to lead in this new digital first healthcare delivery model. Don’t Get Lost-Get Involved!”- David Dansereau 

ps-Check out David’s recent “Tony Stark” patient example (revealed in webinar #2 in his “Guide to Digital Health Innovation Playbook” on smartmovespt.com) to find out what he thinks we need to do to move the profession forward. *APTA survey data from 2020.