Minding the Gap: How COVID-19 Impacted the Clinical Experience and Actionable Solutions
Thursday, March 3, 1-2:30 p.m.
Session Leader: Nina Bondre, CPO, FAAOP
Speakers: Leigh Davis, MSPO, CPO, FAAOP; Ciera Price, MSPO, CPO/Ll Adrienne Hill, MHA, CPO; Glen Thompson, MS, CPO
There are two sessions included in the new Change Management track at the Annual Meeting, and they include discussions and methods to improve the experience of the O&P clinician in the workplace.
Women in O&P, in collaboration with DIAP, will host Minding the Gap: How COVID-19 Impacted the Clinical Experience and Actionable Solutions. While COVID-19 interrupted day-to-day life for all, it catalyzed changes in the status quo of professional practice. The diverse panel of speakers will explore how the pandemic impacted the experience of clinicians, residences, students, and families. Panelists will discuss actionable solutions to make the future of our profession equitable for all and to support attendees as they continue to manage pandemic-related issues, including but not limited to navigating change both professional and personally, staffing challenges, residency, childcare, flexible schedules, and shifts in what the clinical job entails. Read about the Diversity, Inclusion & Equity in Practice in Friday’s highlights.
It Starts Outside the Exam Room: Perspectives on Inclusivity
Thursday, March 3, 8-9:30 a.m. ET
Session Leader: Fanny Schultea, MS, MSEd, CPO/L, FAAOP
Speakers: Sandy Crisp, MS, CRC, LCDC; Wyona Freysteinson, PhD; Elizabeth Plowman, PT, DPT, OCS, TPS
The session will be a conversation with researchers and providers living with and caring for those with functional differences. It will dive into different stages and contexts for barriers and opportunities for diversity and inclusivity across the lifespan of individuals and communities who experience physical or functional differences. The panel will address the psychosocial principles and considerations when mindfully providing care and support to those with disabilities of any origin. Personal experiences and testimonies will paint the strokes that contribute to the experiential picture for those we serve within and outside of the clinical setting. The goal is to generate a discussion to reframe thinking around the unique experiences and impacts of trauma and loss and incorporate our differences while navigating the current societal construct. Shifting awareness can be the catalyst for change, change that is needed, and change that we can all be a part of.
From the Benchtop to Bedside
Thursday, March 3, 1-2:30 p.m. ET
Session Leader: Fanny Schultea, MS, MSEd, CPO/L, FAAOP
Speakers: Stefania Fatone, PhD, BPO (Hons); Phillip Stevens, MEd, CPO, FAAOP; Sara Morgan, PhD, CPO; Sally Kenworthy, MPO, CPO; Nicole Walker, MS, CPO
This session will assemble a group of researchers and educators at various career stages to discuss the importance of knowledge translation in O&P. The group will outline the structure and strategy for evidence-based practice while addressing the critical aspects of the process, including developing a clinical question, searching the literature, assessing the evidence, and applying the research to practice in context of clinical experience and patient preferences.
Attendees will gain a greater appreciation for the value and techniques for using evidence in practice. The goal is to begin empowering clinicians with the practical knowledge and tools to adopt and incorporate research consistently into a busy clinical schedule.
Prosthetic Alignment with German Proficiency
Thursday, March 3, 2:40-4:10 p.m. ET
Session Leader: Brian Kaluf, BSE, CP, FAAOP
Speakers: Merkur Alimusaj, Dipl.-Ing; Kristin Carnahan, MSPO, CPO, FAAOP; Matthew Major, PhD; Bob Gailey, PhD, PT
Biomechanics play a particularly important role when walking after limb loss. Sufficient power transmission and a stable gait are only basic requirements. The user must also feel subjectively safe to be objectively safe. A biomechanically correct alignment of the individual components of a prosthesis is essential to ensure stability and safety on the one hand and, last but not least, to put as much physiological stress on the residual limb and the contralateral side as possible and to pay attention to the interaction of socket and residual limb as well as prosthesis and preserved extremity. The lecture will illuminate both fundamental physical aspects as well as correlating biomechanical backgrounds and explains them with some examples.
A Multi-site Randomized Cross-over Study of a “Test-Drive” Strategy for Prosthetic Foot Prescription
Thursday, March 3, 6-6:30 p.m. ET
Speaker: David Morgenroth
In this Thranhardt Lecture, Morgenroth will discuss the results of a study conducted to determine whether users’ initial preferences for prosthetic feet after a brief trial in the lab can predict their preferences, performance-based outcomes, and self-report outcomes after a two-week trial in the community. Morgenroth was the first author of the study, in which the participants tested various prosthetic feet in conditions such as a level and inclined treadmill and going up stairs, then used each foot for consecutive two-week community trials. He will describe the process of data collection that led to results showing that the participants’ initial foot preference scores from in-lab trials with commercial feet correlated with preference scores after community trials in some outcome measures. The research suggests that a patient-centered test drive could benefit the patient and the practitioner.
Effect Of Orthoses on Balance in Cerebral Palsy: Traditional Solid AFO Versus Ankle-Foot Orthoses Footwear Combination
Thursday, March 3, 6:30-7 pm ET
Speaker: Kristie Bjornson, PT, PhD, MS
In this session, Bjornson, the study’s first author, will discuss results of examining the effect of an AFO-footwear combination management approach on balance as compared to the traditional solid AFO in children with cerebral palsy (CP).
She will report on the first phase of the randomized cross-over pilot study conducted from Dec 2018 to Sep 2020. The results suggest that the AFO-footwear combination approach had a positive effect on balance in ambulatory children with spastic diplegic CP as compared to traditional solid AFOs, which could inform orthotic management.
To read highlights of some Friday sessions, visit
To view the complete schedule, visit the Academy’s website.
