Technology in Practice
By Paul E. Prusakowski, CPO, FAAOP Imagine that you could search through all of your O&P
bookshelves in seconds to find a bit of information that could help
you solve a problem right now. Wouldn't that be amazing?
The information that you need to manage a challenging case or
provide better documentation to help justify a treatment option may
be out there, but it doesn't do you any good if you can't find it.
Putting the power of humanity's collective knowledge about
orthotics and prosthetics at your fingertips is one of the goals of
the Digital Resource Foundation's Virtual Library Project, which is
available at www.oandplibrary.org.
 If you haven't used this resource in practice,
there is nothing holding you back. At present, there are 59 years
of O&P specific journals (JPO, JACPOC, and
Artificial Limbs) and the complete Second Edition of the
Atlas of Limb Prosthetics digitized and available. Thanks
to the generous contributions of a growing number of practitioners,
this project is gaining momentum, preserving our clinical history
and connecting us to an incredible wealth of knowledge that still
has practical clinical and research value.
Once you are familiar with the resource, you can begin using it
in practice by performing keyword searches when you need
information for a challenging case, and by referencing the
literature in your clinical documentation. As our profession
continues to publish more substantial articles that measure
clinical outcomes, this resource will become even more of an asset,
helping us find documented literature to support and enhance our
patient care.
The O&P Virtual Library is a long-term project, and it is my
hope that the global O&P community will continue to both use
and support this resource long into the future. If you own the
rights to any clinical publications in O&P that you would like
to have digitally preserved in the O&P Library, please let us
know. Your financial contributions also go a very long way in
helping to move this project along. You can find out more at www.oandplibrary.org. 
Table Of Contents - February 2008
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