OWW, OPIE, St. Pete’s Partner

St. Petersburg College, Florida, has partnered with Ohio Willow Wood, Mt. Sterling, Ohio, and OPIE Software, Gainesville, Florida, to integrate a progressive teaching model that includes both OMEGA® Tracer® CAD/CAM technology and OPIE practice-management software throughout its orthotic and prosthetic curriculum.

Ohio Willow Wood's OMEGA® Tracer® system is used exclusively for CAD/CAM instruction in St. Petersburg College's O&P bachelor's degree program. In addition to being trained in traditional casting and taking measurements, students use the OMEGA Tracer shape-capture devices to capture orthotic and prosthetic shapes. Students can then compare and contrast traditional methods with the 3D images created in OMEGA Tracer to assess accuracy. Modifications to shapes and diagnostic sockets are created by both traditional and OMEGA Tracer methods, after which students select one type to proceed to a definitive socket.

St. Petersburg College O&P faculty have used academic versions of OPIE software to monitor student progress in creating patient files that include clinical documentation and assessments. Students are able to store patient shape files from OMEGA Tracer within electronic patient files for reference throughout their coursework.

"St. Petersburg College's O&P program provides a unique opportunity for students to learn to use advanced clinical software and how to merge images and collected patient data from OMEGA Tracer into OPIE," said Arlene Gillis, LPO, instructor at St. Petersburg College. "As patient documentation and showing third-party payers clinical results of O&P treatment is becoming increasingly vital to this industry, St. Petersburg College O&P graduates are well suited to enter the job market with a clear advantage over other candidates."

St. Petersburg College has implemented the new curriculum and said it has already observed positive student and faculty feedback. The survey titled, "Practice Analysis of Certified Practitioners in the Disciplines of Orthotics and Prosthetics" that was published in 2007 by the American Board for Certification in Orthotics, Prosthetics & Pedorthics (ABC) showed that only 16 percent of credentialed O&P practitioners used CAD/CAM to create orthotic devices, and 24 percent use it for prosthetic devices.

"These numbers will increase as the technology improves and the future practitioners, who are today's students, get more familiar with the systems," predicts Gillis.

For more information on St. Petersburg College's partnership with OPIE Software, visit

www.oandp.com/edge/issues/articles/NEWS_2008-08-13_01.asp

OWW, OPIE, St. Pete’s Partner

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