Timothy Bach, PhD, has been named editor in chief of the journal Prosthetics and Orthotics International (POI), the flagship publication of the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO). Bach takes over the role from Sarah Curran, PhD, who held the position for five years.
Bach, who recently retired from his position as an associate professor in biomechanics at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, has teaching and research experience in O&P and other allied healthcare disciplines at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He was the head of the National Centre for Prosthetics and Orthotics at La Trobe for eight years, and has been an ISPO member for more than 20 years, where he held several leadership roles at the national and international level: He served as chair of the Scientific Committee of ISPO Australia, convened a number of national ISPO scientific meetings, was scientific chair of the ISPO 2007 World Congress, and was a member of the POI editorial board for three years.
During her tenure, Curran revamped the journal’s format, increased the number of issues from four to six per year, cemented the relationship with the publisher, Sage Publications, and established early e-publication of accepted articles. She is also credited with the increase of the journal’s impact factor from 0.634 to over 1.0. Curran is a program director at the Wales Centre for Podiatric Studies, Cardiff Metropolitan University; she resigned as POI’s editor in chief after assuming greater administrative responsibility within the university.