October 2007 • Vol. 3, No. 4
	Advancing Orthotic and Prosthetic Care Through Knowledge

Get the Big Picture at the Academy Annual Meeting

Exceptional O&P education and the only Exhibit Hall  designed with the attendee in mind.

Interested in learning the latest about cutting-edge O&P research? Looking for new clinical techniques that you can utilize in your practice immediately? Seeking to strengthen connections with colleagues across the country (and the globe)? Take advantage of the opportunity to do all this—and more—at the 34th Academy Annual Meeting and Scientific Symposium, to be held in Orlando, Florida, February 27–March 1, 2008.

"This is the venue for O&P professionals, where we can report to each other and gain counsel about the best way to take care of our patients," pointed out Don Katz, CO, LO, FAAOP. "That's what it means to be a professional—to challenge each other and learn from each other. I'm sure many of my colleagues would agree that we've never fit the perfect orthosis or prosthesis; there are always ways to improve O&P care." A former president of the Academy who has held numerous leadership positions, Katz said he is humbled by the responsibility of his newest role: chairing the Clinical Content Committee for the Annual Meeting. "The Annual Meeting plays an important role in the health and future of the Academy," he said.

Katz succeeds Jim Campbell, PhD, CO, FAAOP, who has chaired the committee for the past four years. He looks forward to continuing to build on the strong foundation Campbell and his committee established, further elevating the content quality and stature of the Annual Meeting. "We want to set the bar as high as we can possibly set it," Katz explained. "Our challenge is to maintain a balance between the academically and research-based presentations and the clinically relevant sessions that will help the practitioner the next week back in the exam room."

JoAnne Kanas, DPT, CPO, sees each Annual Meeting as building on the success and strengths of the previous ones. "It's not so much about changing things as continuing in the direction the meetings have been going for the last several years," explained Kanas, who has served on the Clinical Content Committee for the past few years. "We're continuing to raise the quality of the presentations and to incorporate evidence-based practice into as many talks as possible."

As the meeting's reputation and popularity grow, it attracts more submissions, enabling the committee to become increasingly selective about presenters. "We're looking for good, dynamic speakers who have something to say," explained committee member Stefania Fatone, PhD, BPO(Hons), noting that the growth and development of the O&P profession has been yielding a larger pool of highly qualified speakers. In fact, the number of free papers presented at the Annual Meeting has jumped from 37 in 2005 to 78 in 2007.

Phil Stevens, MEd, CPO, also a committee member, pointed out that not only were more papers presented, more were turned away. "The bar has been raised, not lowered. That's very exciting," he said. Fatone would like to see more speakers at the meeting representing disciplines outside O&P. "They may have some insights or information that we wouldn't ordinarily have access to," she observed.

Under Campbell's leadership, the international reach of the meeting was significantly expanded, both in terms of attendees and presenters, and Katz wants to continue this trend. "That was one of the greatest things that Jim, being from the UK, brought to the meeting. In both San Francisco and Chicago, we had a lot of excellent presentations offering a different perspective," he said.

"We want to set the bar as high as we can possibly set it."
—Don Katz, CO, LO, FAAOP

While Katz is pleased that an increasing number of O&P practitioners are willing to share their expertise in the Annual Meeting forum, he hopes that more clinicians eventually will step forward to discuss their failures as well as their successes. "It can be a challenge sometimes to openly state at the podium that something didn't work. I've done it," he said. "But we can learn as much from failure as success, especially when we welcome input from our colleagues."

He believes it is the responsibility of the experienced clinicians to help integrate clinical relevance with the profession's increasing emphasis on research. "Schools today are focusing on research and evidence-based practice. That was not the case when I was in school," he said. "Our responsibility, as seasoned Academy members and Fellows, is to be better contributors and help the young, academically minded professionals understand what's practical and clinically relevant. The Annual Meeting is the greatest opportunity to give insights and to give back."

Focus on Key Areas

Although the details are still being worked out, Katz and his committee plan to focus on certain key areas for the 2008 meeting. "First and foremost, we would like to see a stronger audience participation component," Katz said. "I've always felt that the real learning occurs in the question-and-answer sessions, where you drill down to the clinical relevance of a presentation and help clarify what the speaker was wanting to convey."

Fatone agreed, "You gain a greater depth of understanding of the material presented if you're able to have questions."

The committee is seeking ways to create additional time for discussion within the relatively tight timeframe of the meeting, as well as planning to work more closely with the session moderators. "I moderated last year for the first time, and I didn't feel I did a good job," Stevens recalled. "We need to provide more training for the role about how to initiate dialogue and facilitate discussion. In the past, the lack of time or the lack of a good prompting question has often limited discussion."

Kanas added, "We need to get the moderators involved, and give them abstracts beforehand so they're more familiar with the content. There's extra value in that."

Based on attendee feedback expressing concern about the number of concurrent offerings, the committee is also evaluating the programming to determine how to best maximize subject-matter options yet minimize frustration about scheduling. "If we don't have quite so many parallel sessions, participants won't be torn about which to attend," Fatone noted.

"The number of free papers presented at the Annual Meeting has jumped from 37 in 2005 to 78 in 2007."

—Phil Stevens, MEd, CPO

In addition, the planners are focusing on the best approaches for incorporating evidence-based practice standards into as many aspects of the meeting as possible. "I would like to see some case studies and some presentations that highlight literature that supports or contradicts certain approaches," Katz said. "There's great value in learning about what is informing a clinician's decision-making. The better a presenter can tie in clinical decision-making to scientific evidence, the better." Katz would also like to support the Academy's ongoing commitment to help clinicians become better consumers of research. "It's such a huge challenge and huge topic. A series of Annual Meetings will be necessary to give it the attention it deserves," he said.

Attendance Benefits Across O&P Continuum

Last but not least, the Annual Meeting planners are seeking to identify effective and innovative ways to address both extremes of the O&P continuum—from cutting-edge research to clinical techniques that practitioners can put to work as soon as they return to their office. "You can walk away from Clinical Technique sessions with something you can apply right away, but it's also important to bring in information that's in the future and maybe not appropriate to your practice right now," Kanas observed.

Stevens concurs, pointing to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as an example. Through DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics programs, millions of dollars of grants have been awarded to develop breakthrough prosthetic technology. "We're looking at the long-term," Stevens said. "This technology won't be used next week, but we need to know it's coming."

He also sees value in the opportunity the Annual Meeting provides to better understand the big picture in O&P. "It's beneficial to see what's going on at the national and global level, particularly when you practice in a small office or community," he commented. Observing that increased media and patient awareness of new technology demands practitioners make an extra effort to keep abreast of the latest developments, Stevens said, "The Annual Meeting is a chance to come up to speed with all that's going on in the forefront of the field, especially important in light of new technology being marketed to patients directly."

In addition to high-level sessions, some of the most worthwhile time our attendees have is the time they spend in our Exhibit Hall. Jeff Kingsley, the Academy's exhibit chair, spoke about the importance of the Exhibit Hall to attendees. "The Exhibit Hall allows practitioners to have quality time with the manufacturers of the products they use and to learn in detail about what they believe the impact of their products will be on a patient's ability to lead a full and productive life." At the meeting we set aside ample time so that, as Kingsley explained, "there can be a real give-and-take with those who manufacture and supply the products and who find our meeting a perfect place to get honest feedback from practitioners."

Clearly, there are a multitude of practical benefits to be gained from the Annual Meeting. But Fatone believes there's a deeper philosophical reason for attending. "We're professionals. Professionals invest in continuing education and in building a body of knowledge. The Academy and the Annual Meeting are good ways to do that," she said.