<img style="float: right;" src="https://opedge.com/Content/OldArticles/images/2008-04_02/JAndreassen.jpg" hspace="4" vspace="4" /> <b> As the challenges of the 21<sup>st </sup>century </b>present themselves to the O&P profession, independent practices often face insurmountable struggles when balancing the rising costs of keeping their doors open and maintaining the same quality of care that they have been providing for years. Education is a clear solution to the challenges facing our profession-good, solid, hands-on education taught by some of the finest and brightest educators in the world. However, education in and of itself is not enough. The focus should be <i>on the practical, </i>where the clinician can go home and use it in his or her practice. The diversity of patients seen in our offices demands that clinicians have more than one or two options to offer today's more enlightened consumer. A clinician's time away from home and hard-earned money must be rewarded with education that is both practical and proven. It must meet the highest best-practice standards. It must also be open to review and critique for future evidence-based outcomes. Throughout our profession, there are extraordinarily talented individuals who are quietly practicing superior techniques with no forum to share this knowledge with their peers. Now they have a new option. Our profession is maturing. We must acknowledge that with our advancements in socket design and technology comes a greater need to provide superior education to those who fabricate the devices. Pathways currently offered for registered technicians to acquire mandatory CEUs are inadequate. This is also a challenge for certified orthotic fitters. We certainly must provide better education for office staff and make the latest options for web-based billing software available to them. Right now, your independent practice could possess the tools for marketing the newly acquired and latest innovative techniques in your community. You could be prepared to confidently answer the call of becoming a clinical leader wherever you live. This commitment to provide options, hope, and the pursuit of clinical excellence is really all the patient asks. Is this the best there is for me? With that commitment, the patient becomes yours for life, and your attitude of continued resolve is contagious. Your patient's confidence in your abilities can become your best referral source. Welcome the difficult patient with options. Become the go-to practice in your community. This common-sense approach to survival-of-the-fittest works. As the deadline for accreditation comes upon us in 2009, let your independent practice be the one in your community that not only survives, but thrives with superior knowledge and options for your patients. It is with this passion and zeal that your reputation can be strengthened and reconfirmed not only to patients but also to insurance companies and referral sources. Through education, yours can become the best practice in the area-one patient at a time. Following the success of the MAS® AK socket design courses, OPGA will be hosting several new courses in 2008 with the same hands-on emphasis in the areas of upper-limb advances and transradial socket design, RCR transtibial socket design, the GOS Spinal System, and the continuation of the MAS courses, both basic and advanced. These courses provide the prosthetist and the orthotist the option of learning by doing and observing rather than just listening. As the president of the Orthotic and Prosthetic Group of America® (OPGA), I am keenly aware that my unique position allows me to dramatically impact many in our profession. It is with great humility and honor that I begin each day with the purpose of making the lives of those brave enough to continue to practice independently a little easier and proudly stand up and say, "I am an independent practitioner!" <i> Jim Andreassen is president of the Orthotic and Prosthetic Group of America (OPGA). He can be reached at 800.214.6742 or <a href="mailto:jim.andreassen@vgm.com">jim.andreassen@vgm.com</a></i>
