Ms Michelle Razo was a guest on the More Than Just A Hand podcast hosted by Blair Agero, a series profiling Hand Therapists working in different parts of the world. The conversation covered Ms Razo’s clinical career and the contrasts between Hand Therapy in the United States and the United Kingdom. They also discussed her move from the NHS to focus entirely on her independent specialist hand and upper limb clinic in Belfast.
A career across two health systems
The episode traces Ms Razo’s journey in becoming an Occupational Therapist, Hand Therapy training as well as clinical practice in the United States and the United Kingdom. Working across multiple countries, private and public systems offer a vantage point that few clinicians share. The discussion drew out differences and the role of the Consultant Hand Therapist in the UK public sector.
Building a specialist private practice
A central theme of the conversation was the move from Hand Therapist in the public sector, into sole focus on independent specialist practice. Ms Razo discussed the reasoning behind the move.
Differential diagnosis and proximity blindness
The episode also touched on two clinical themes that recur in Ms Razo’s practice and teaching: firstly, the importance of careful differential diagnosis when patients present with overlapping or atypical symptoms. Secondly, what Ms Razo calls “proximity blindness” in upper limb clinical reasoning, an application of an established concept from attention research to Hand Therapy assessment. Ms Razo first introduced this concept publicly with her presentation “A Different Spin: Rethinking Golfer’s Elbow” at the 2025 International Hand & Wrist Congress and Hand Therapy Symposium in Dubai. The talk used proximity blindness as a multi-dimensional framing: defaulting to inflammation when the pathology is degenerative, fixating on the medial epicondyle when sources lie further along the kinetic chain or missing concurrent conditions like a ligamentous injury alongside golfer’s elbow.
Listen to the episode
The full episode is available on Spotify. For more on Blair Agero’s work and the wider podcast series, visit handtherapistblair.com.
For a full list of Ms Razo’s speaking, teaching and media engagements, see the speaking and media page.