For five weeks this summer, we were lucky enough to have an intern from one of the O&P technical education programs working with us. We like working with interns because it gives us a chance to see the relative effectiveness of the various technical education program curricula and because we get some free labor! Another [...]
Not all of my ideas are good ones, and neither are yours, but you know what? That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Frequently I am asked to build an orthosis, which, in my humble opinion, is bound to fail. It could be because of the design, the materials chosen, or even the components, but for [...]
Remember TPE (thermoplastic elastomer)? I first heard about it when I read an article in 1990 by Ron Sutton, BSE, CO, in the Journal of Prosthetics & Orthotics (JPO). When used to fabricate an AFO, this cool new material was just rigid enough to allow some control, but flexible enough to allow a more natural [...]
There are a lot of theories about how people learn. For example, some educators believe that there are three different modes of learning: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Basically, you learn either by hearing, seeing, or doing. While I believe that people use each of these learning techniques at different times and to varying degrees, I [...]
The phrase “work your magic” is both a compliment and a curse. On one hand, it is a tremendous vote of confidence when someone clearly believes I have the skill, experience, wisdom, or whatever to turn a bad cast into a functional orthosis. On the other hand, I know who is hiding behind the curtain, [...]
It’s been said that America’s favorite color is shiny, and I agree. Pre-preg is great. Really, it’s a wonderful material—high strength-to-weight ratio, easy to engineer, highly repeatable—but there’s just one problem…it’s ugly! The usual method of using a cloth wick and a breather layer to remove excess resin during the curing process leaves a dull, [...]
Welcome to the fork in the road—this is when we decide how the future unfolds. Over the past year of working with the American Board for Certification in Orthotics, Prosthetics & Pedorthics (ABC), I’ve seen a lot of discussion about the future of technician credentialing, and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the [...]
In the early days of my career, plastic braces were the wave of the future, and conventional metal orthoses were “old fashioned.” But over the years, I’ve managed to find a lot of value in the rugged simplicity of the conventional metal orthosis. I was lucky enough to have trained when almost every brace clinic [...]
When I started out as an orthotic technician over 25 years ago, I believed you should always flatten the plantar surface of an AFO mold. That’s what I was taught because it was the conventional wisdom of the day. Then I had the opportunity to work with a group of physical therapy students. I felt [...]
If you’ve had the same experiences we’ve had with our local phone company, you would also prefer to take your telephone service business elsewhere. I’ve spent too much time over the past several months, talking with a phone company representatives, dealing with billing issues, overcharges, wrong charges, you name it. Given the myriad of options [...]
