Boston Brace, headquartered in Avon, Massachusetts, is celebrating its 40th anniversary in the O&P industry this year.
The company was founded by the late M. E. “Bill” Miller, CPO. In the late 1960s, Miller was invited from his practice in Indiana to provide all of the O&P care and services at Children’s Hospital Boston, Massachusetts. He leased space at the hospital and through that proximity was given the opportunity to integrate O&P care with the rehabilitation professionals employed at Children’s. From this association, he founded the National Orthotic Prosthetic Company (NOPCO), now the clinical division of Boston Brace. Today, NOPCO operates 13 full-service clinical sites throughout the greater Boston area, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and continues to service the needs of pediatric and adult patients.
Because Children’s Hospital was also a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School, Boston, Miller was afforded the opportunity to research and develop new O&P products and work alongside the staff physicians and professors. One of these new O&P products was the Boston Brace System, which he invented in 1972 through a partnership with the hospital’s orthopedic team. Miller then went on to found Boston Brace in Avon, south of Boston, where it is still based today. His Boston Brace system, along with a team approach, revolutionized the conservative management of idiopathic scoliosis.
Today, Boston Brace continues Miller’s mission to further the O&P industry.
