The International Society for Prosthetics & Orthotics (ISPO) announced that the Canadian Prosthetics & Orthotics Journal has published an article called “Global Standards for Prosthetics and Orthotics.” The World Health Organization (WHO), in partnership with ISPO and the United States Agency for International Development, prepared global standards and an implementation manual to assist member states in setting up, improving, or transforming their systems for delivering appropriate prosthetic and orthotic services.
The 60 new global standards were developed to support countries’ work to “strengthen and extend rehabilitation, habilitation, assistive products, support services, and community-based rehabilitation” from the “WHO Global disability action plan;” achieve the eight recommended areas of rehabilitation in health systems from “Rehabilitation 2030: Call for action”; achieve WHO’s Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology initiative goals, to improve access to high-quality, affordable assistive products globally; realize universal health coverage; and support countries implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, particularly the sections about personal mobility and habilitation and rehabilitation. The standards are divided into four sections: policy, products (prostheses, orthoses), personnel, and provision of services.
The WHO definition of universal health coverage was used in development of the standards. It defines universal health coverage as “ensuring that all people can use the promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative health services they need, of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the user to financial hardship.”
The article’s authors are Edward D. Lemaire, PhD, Terry J. Supan, CPO, FAAOP, and Marlo Ortiz, a certified clinical prosthetist and head of Ortiz International, an O&P manufacturing company in Jalisco, Mexico.
Lemaire is with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Centre for Rehabilitation Research and Development, and is an ISPO board member, international congress chairman, and incoming president. Supan is president and CEO of Supan Prosthetic Orthotic Consultations, Rochester, Illinois. He is a retired clinical professor, a former chair of the Illinois Orthotic, Prosthetic and Pedorthic Licensure Board, former president of the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists, and a member of the ISPO executive board. Ortiz is a national coordinator of the Uniting Frontiers regional board, international representative of the ISPO Mexico National Member Society, and member of the Executive Board of ISPO International.
