The Alabama Commission on Higher Education recently gave Alabama State University’s (ASU) College of Health Sciences, Montgomery, the green light to be the home of the state’s only master of science in prosthetics and orthotics (MSPO) program. ASU also is the only historically black college/university (HBCU) to offer such a degree.
Steven Chesboro, PT, DPT, EdD, GCS, dean of the College of Health Sciences and chair of the Department of Physical Therapy, said enrollment in the program is slated for the fall of 2012. The program is expected to accept six to eight students in its first year.
Chesboro said there is a lot of demand for prosthetists and orthotists in Alabama because of the state’s high rate of diabetes and the number of people who lose a limb because of the chronic disease.
A 2006 workforce study for the O&P profession found that Alabama, West Virginia, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Kentucky were the states with the lowest number of certified professionals per potential patient.
Chesboro said the new master’s program is a perfect fit for ASU’s College of Health Sciences because of the other degrees the department offers, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, and rehabilitation. He said the new program will give students an opportunity to see what each of the other professions do as part of a team to help someone who has lost a limb due to some kind of a trauma.
