The International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics Canada

As a Masters student in Biomechanics, I had the opportunity to be involved with gait research at The Rehabilitation Centre in Ottawa that compared hinged and leaf spring AFO designs (with ISPO member Steven Hale). This kindled a lifelong interest in research that used technologies to improve mobility for people with physical disabilities. While I have many aspects of my work that bring me joy, my greatest joy is likely the opportunity to innovate. It is easy to come to work each day when you are able to work on new things that should improve our understanding of how assistive technologies are used and thereby improve prosthetics and orthotics care.

When I started at the Royal Ottawa Rehab Centre, Guy Martel was Director of P&O and also President of ISPO Canada, so I was encouraged to join the group to help organize ISPO Day, just before the CAPO event in Ottawa. This started a long chain of involvement with ISPO that went from ISPO Canada board member, website creator, ISPO Canada President, ISPO International committee(s) and board member, and ISPO International President. ISPO has been a partner throughout the last 30 years.

ISPO has visible and invisible impacts on assistive devices and rehabilitation services. The decades of work providing and accrediting educational opportunities has helped create a global prosthetics and orthotics workforce that knows the core competencies for providing appropriate P&O devices and supporting end-users to improve their mobility and quality of life. In the background, ISPO has worked to represent multidisciplinary P&O care at the World Health Organization, UN, and other international agencies. This helps to ensure that people who use P&O devices are not left behind. Special activities, such as the guidance documents for COVID, help to protect both patients and practitioners. The ISPO World Congress is the most visible activity, providing a global event to translate knowledge between multidisciplinary professionals and see the state-of-the-art in P&O technologies.

In Canada, ISPO has been a leader in bringing international expertise to Canada through Symposia, webinars, and other events. We also created the multilingual lexicon/dictionary that is used worldwide to aid in communication in the P&O field. These activities help to bring world-class care to Canadians who use P&O devices.

With ISPO, I continue to support Bryan Malas who is leading the project to update how P&O professionals are represented in the ILO (International Labour Organization) and in the WHO Global Health Workforce Statistics database. I look forward to the World Congress in Stockholm, both to present our research but also to reconnect with the ISPO family.

I am also excited about recent progress with various R&D projects. We now have people with hip disarticulation amputations walking with our powered microprocessor-controlled hip joint, showing that this technology can greatly improve mobility by providing appropriate hip torque during locomotion. We also have installed pilot systems for our Smart Hallway project, which uses 3D markerless motion analysis to automatically provide a gait report after a walk through a local hallway. The first 3DPrinted socket inserts are being pilot tests, providing an intermediate step between socket iterations for new transtibial amputees. We have a pilot Mobile Motion lab app that can be used for remote collection of smartphone video for movement analysis and automated outcome measurement, focussing on children but useful for many applications. A few other developments are also in the pipeline and will hopefully be ready to present later in Sweden.

Do not be reluctant to innovate. It is usually a good idea to listen to people with experience and to use all available tools within your circle of influence to provide the best results in any activity that you are involved with. However, keep your mind open to opportunities to innovate. Look broadly to bring in new ideas from other professions and fields. Increase your circle of influence since it is hard to innovate by yourself, and it is usually much more fun to do things together!

Side note: Start with an idea but then check if it has been done before … I sometimes see research where they are re-examining ideas from the 1970s. Sad misuse of very smart people.

I enjoy playing the keyboard and guitar and miss the days of playing in a band (will have to get back into this one day). Hockey is also quite enjoyable, even if I have lost a step or two. Go Sens Go.

Getting involved with ISPO Canada was one of the best moves I have made, both for my professional and personal life. In addition to being able to contribute to multidisciplinary care on national and global levels, I have made lifelong connections that are important to me on multiple levels. I encourage anyone reading this to get involved, you won’t be disappointed.