The people
behind your care.
A close-knit team of specialists who actually talk to each other about your case — so your care is joined-up, not handed off.
Raj Desai, MD
Dr. Raj Desai helps patients find relief from chronic back, neck, and joint pain — often without surgery. He is double board-certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Interventional Pain Management, and founded Performance Sports and Spine, where he serves as medical director.
His approach centers on minimally invasive, image-guided treatment for spine, joint, and sports-related pain, with an emphasis on non-opioid options. His procedures include epidural injections, medial branch blocks, radiofrequency nerve ablation, kyphoplasty, spinal cord stimulation, and joint and tendon injections — along with regenerative options like PRP and bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) for the right candidates.
His goal is simple: get you back to what you were doing before the pain started — whether that's playing sports, hiking, staying active, or keeping up with your kids and grandkids.
Akinwunmi Oni-Orisan, MD
Dr. Oni-Orisan is a fellowship-trained neurosurgeon specializing in open cerebrovascular, skull base, and endovascular neurosurgery. He treats ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, brain aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, carotid disease, acoustic neuromas, and skull base tumors — with extensive training in degenerative and traumatic spine disorders, brain tumors, trigeminal neuralgia, Chiari malformation, carpal tunnel syndrome, pituitary adenomas, and traumatic brain injury.
Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Nigerian immigrant parents, he earned a bachelor's in cell and molecular biology with honors from the University of Michigan and his MD from Wayne State University School of Medicine. He completed a seven-year neurological surgery residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin, followed by a two-year fellowship in open cerebrovascular, skull base, and neuro-endovascular surgery at UT Health Science Center in Houston.
He lives in the area with his wife and three young daughters, and enjoys sports, music, and travel.
Shutish C. Patel, MD
Dr. Patel is a fellowship-trained neurologist, board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He completed his fellowship as a staff fellow at the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, following a residency at Baylor College of Medicine and a pediatrics internship at Baystate Medical Center (Tufts University).
He spent more than 30 years with the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, including over a decade as Chief of Neurology, and currently serves as Chief of Neurology at Middlesex Hospital. His research in the cellular and molecular neurobiology of neurodegenerative disorders has produced more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and dozens of research grants.
A recognized expert in traumatic brain injury, Dr. Patel brings deep experience to the evaluation and long-term management of head trauma. His broader clinical focus includes dementia-related symptoms, headache and migraine, Parkinson's and movement disorders, neuropathies, and behavioral disorders following stroke or dementia.
Mani Nezhad, MD
Dr. Nezhad is a board-certified adult and vascular neurologist focused on state-of-the-art care for stroke and cerebrovascular disease.
He grew up in the San Fernando Valley, studied at USC, and earned his master's and medical degrees at Georgetown University. He returned to Southern California for neurology training at Cedars-Sinai, where he served as chief resident, and completed a vascular neurology fellowship under Dr. Patrick Lyden.
He serves as neuroscience medical director and stroke program medical director at St. John's, where he helped build the region's only Joint Commission-certified, thrombectomy-capable stroke center. He performs EMG, NCV, TCD, EEG, BAEP, and VEP studies.
Within our practice, Dr. Nezhad's focus is electrodiagnostic medicine. An expert in EMG and nerve conduction studies, he uses them to pinpoint the source of nerve and muscle symptoms — numbness, weakness, radiating pain — and turn an uncertain diagnosis into a clear, targeted treatment plan.
Ali Johnson
Ali keeps the practice running smoothly — overseeing scheduling, billing, and the patient experience so your visits are easy from the first call to follow-up.