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Cases coming alive with doc’s expertise

A Roanoke-area doctor suddenly sidelined by chronic illness has reinvented himself as the region’s most highly-qualified litigation support professional.

Rheumatologist Tim Henshaw used to help patients deal with their arthritic joints. Now, he helps lawyers by creating three-dimensional, animated computer graphics and other displays that bring their cases to life.

The shift was not an easy one. In 2000, Tim Henshaw was on his feet most of the day. As a busy rheumatologist in a small practice group in Salem, treating an aging and largely underserved patient population, Henshaw’s days lasted 10 to 12 hours. He moved from patient to patient and down the hallways of Lewis-Gale Medical Center. Approaching age 40 and double-board-certified in rheumatology and internal medicine, Hen-shaw was just hitting his stride for a promising medical career.

For Henshaw, the world changed fast. Near the end of 2000, he started having odd pains in his feet. By May of 2001, he was on full disability from a form of peripheral neuropathy that kept him from being able to stand or walk without pain.

Bound to a wheelchair for one-and-a-half years and unable to treat patients, Henshaw looked for ways to use his medical knowledge outside the hospital and clinic. As he regained mobility with treatment, he started helping lawyers like Matt Broughton investigate and prepare their cases.

At first, Henshaw did what other doctors do to help lawyers – he reviewed medical records and offered opinions. But Henshaw liked to work with computers, and Broughton needed a PowerPoint presentation for a mediation. Eventually, Henshaw was adding animation and more extensive graphics.

Now, Henshaw works with an Apple program called Final Cut Studio to produce polished video presentations that tell the clients’ stories. Equipped with high-end video production equipment, Henshaw shoots and edits video and incorporates graphics to make medical facts vivid.

“We try to make it more like what people are used to seeing on television,” he said. “It has a totally different impact from just a guy talking.”

Henshaw is aided by his wife, Sherrie, a medical technologist, and by life care planner Charlene Cole.

In five years, Henshaw says that he has helped attorneys with some $28 million in settled cases.

Broughton, a partner at Roanoke’s Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore, used Henshaw’s company to produce three-dimensional animated graphics that dramatically illustrated a skull fracture. The images were based on actual CT scans taken of the patient.
The remarkable thing about Henshaw’s work, Broughton says, is that he combines the technical know-how with his medical knowledge and experience.

“You would expect him to be in D.C., but he’s here in Southwest Virginia,” Broughton said.

Henshaw says there are companies offering the same technology in Northern Virginia and Norfolk, but they do not have a physician on staff.

Although he still does a small amount of work as an expert witness, Henshaw mainly stays behind the scenes. “I usually become so involved with the presentation, attorneys do not want me to be deposed,” he said.

Roanoke lawyer John Lichtenstein is among those who sing Henshaw’s praises. “He has a very unique combination of great human insight and compassion and great technical know-how,” Lichtenstein said. “He is very skilled at bringing depth and insight into presenting our client damages.”

Henshaw’s company, Atlantic Technical Consultants, is based out of his home in the Poages Mill area of Roanoke County.

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