CHICAGO – The changing needs of O&P practitioners drive the planning of the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists Meeting and Scientific Symposium each year, the association’s president said.
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Keith Smith, CO, LO, FAAOP, spoke to O&P Business News about his expectations of this year’s meeting and what attendees can take away.
“There is a greater focus on the research and evidence-based outcomes in the programming of the meeting,” Smith told O&P Business News. “One of the missions of the Academy is to promote research in the field. Each year we have sessions of the results of research … This year, there is a combined effort of the Academy’s Research Council and the Orthotic and Prosthetic Education and Research Foundation.”
In addition to research initiatives, the Academy is conducting a special session on Thursday that will outline the profession’s response to the earthquake in Haiti, Smith said.
Other sessions Smith noted were the “Prosthetic Grand Round: Evidence Based Decisions about Lower Limb Prostheses,” “Report on the State of the Science Conference on Upper Limb Prosthetic Outcome Measures,” and “Casting Techniques Used in the Treatment of Infantile Onset Idiopathic Scoliosis.”
Smith encouraged this year’s attendees to carefully review the program and outline the sessions that will best serve their personal needs.
“[Attendees] will take away practical solutions and ideas that will be useful in their practice from the moment they return home,” Smith said. “In addition we hope [they] … will have renewed old acquaintances and made new ones — people who they can contact on a regular basis as friends or to help with ideas on how to help a patient.”
