Academy Advanced Course in Materials Science
At the beginning of this month, I had the privilege of assisting Bill Contayannis and his colleagues back in Australia in conducting an intensive two-day course on Materials Science. The original concept was to conduct most of the course by videoconference, but Bill volunteered to use his honorarium to buy a ticket and to make the 24-hour flight [each way!] so he could present his lectures in person.
The Academy has been gradually increasing the depth and scientific content in their course offerings in recent years, and the response from attendees has been encouraging. The Overview of Gait Analysis for Prosthetists & Orthotists, which sold out last year, is being held again in September. Details are available at www.oandp.org.
The Materials Science course debuted this year and was intended to offer participants the latest scientific information on custom fabrication and component selection and durability. Tom Lunsford MSE, CO's excellent text, Strength of Materials in Prosthetics & Orthotics, was the cornerstone for this engineering-based curriculum - supplemented by reams of articles and handouts from the original work done at the University of Monash and other sources. [Tom's book is available from Amazon.com by clicking on www.amazon.com.]
This was a very ambitious curriculum, starting with 11 hours of lecture, discussion, and videoconferencing on the first day. The second day included two written examinations, and analysis of examples of product failure supplied by the attendees from their clinical experience. Despite the grueling pace, everyone worked hard to keep up and the discussions were animated and far ranging.
Of particular note, this was the Academy's first live interactive videoconference. Ross Stewart and colleagues lectured and answered audience members' questions from Monash University in Melbourne starting at 2PM Chicago time on Friday, which was 5AM Saturday morning in Australia! The course attendees were relaxing comfortably in the video conference center at Northwestern's Evanston campus, which is a short walk from the hotel where the balance of the course was conducted.
It took everyone fifteen minutes or so to get used to the 1-second time lag for the sound to travel halfway around the globe and back, but this proved to be a very effective method to deliver such scientific content. The Australians are far more proficient at using such distance learning resources than we are in the USA, and have done literally hundreds of such presentations. Ross' presentation was very well organized and professionally conducted, and he was soon eliciting spontaneous questions from the audience halfway around the world.
Bill has set up a Resources Page on the REHABTech web site with supplementary information for the course attendees, and anyone else who is interested. You can check it out for yourself by going to www.rehabtech.eng.monash.edu. The Research and Publications buttons at the top of the page also have very interesting content that is directly relevant to materials science and engineering of P&O devices.
The course reviews contained a number of good suggestions to improve the course in the future. Overall, it appeared that attendees found the content both clinically relevant and applicable to their practice settings. Sample comments included:
- Videoconference was great; the best continuing education I have attended!
- Incredible information which is very proactive to our needs.
- This has been the best training course I have ever attended. More than worth the time and effort.
- Very practical information; will raise the professionalism of the field.
- I'll be better at what I do and my patients will be safer because of these two days.
Comments like these encourage the Academy to continue to take the risk of offering innovative, advanced courses on topics that are directly relevant to prosthetic and orthotic patient care. Hopefully there will be yet another Advanced Course on a new topic debuting in 2003.
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Question from the 4/2000 posting
Does anyone know where I can get the Canadian Arthritis and Rheumatology Society Knee brace shown there? I have a Dr at the local VA that used to use them, and ordered one yesterday. That posting is the only place I could find even a pict... read more
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Re: Question from the 4/2000 posting
I used a number of these and obtained them from USMC, but to the best of my knowledge, they dropped this product years ago. I believe it is no longer commercially available. You might be able to build one yourself, but the time required w... read more
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Re: Re: Question from the 4/2000 posting
Ciudad de México 8 de Junio, 2002.
Estimado John Michael, C. P. O.
le enviamos un afectuoso saludo desde la ciudad de México y le informamos que la Sociedad Mexicana de Ortesistas y Protesistas, realizará un "Taller de Patología Espinal... read more
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Re: Re: Re: Question from the 4/2000 posting
This should be an excellent course on Spinal Orthoses with such distinguished faculty. Best professional regards. --John Michael CPO
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