ISPO Canada/OAPO/AAOP Education Session

The International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) Canada, the Ontario Association of Prosthetics and Orthotics (OAPO), and the Alberta Association of Orthotists and Prosthetists (AAOP) are joining forces to hold a joint Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Education Session on Saturday, October 28, 2023. This event will be virtual to reach a wider audience.

In addition to each member society’s AGM, we will host an Education Session with clinical presentations and keynote speakers to share their knowledge and research related to prosthetics and orthotics. The intended audience for this event will include members of ISPO, OAPO, and AAOP, as well as non-members, new clinical and technical practitioners, and allied health professionals who are interested in learning more about our field and hearing from experts.

The education sessions will begin with a keynote speaker, Dr. Virgine Blanchette. Dr. Blanchette is an associate professor in podiatric medicine at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and a researcher at VITAM: Sustainable Health Research Centre. Her research focuses on prevention and optimized management of diabetic foot ulcers in primary care. She is also interested in enhanced team approach in limb preservation. Her aim is to enhance care in partnership with the individual, notably through shared decision-making. She has also developed expertise in knowledge mobilization and implementation science.

The next speaker will be Dr. Susan Hunter, an Associate Professor in the School of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. She is a Physical Therapist with 32 years of clinical experience and has a PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, both from the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Hunter’s research interests are the rehabilitation of geriatric patients and their experience of falls, frailty and mobility decline. She also has an interest in rehabilitation of people with lower limb loss, in particular rehabilitation outcomes in the older person and fall prevention including risk factors for falls, concern for falling and how it is assessed, and cognitive-motor effects in learning to walk with a prosthesis.

Our third speaker will be Dr. Sara Morgan, a Senior Research Scientist and co-Director of the Spine Research Program at Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare in St. Paul, MN. Dr. Morgan’s research focuses on clinically-meaningful outcomes related to operative and non-operative treatments for scoliosis, comparative effectiveness of scoliosis treatments, and the development of clinical guidelines to inform evidence-based care.

Our final keynote presenter will be Dr. Jacqueline Hebert, a Professor at the University of Alberta and a physiatrist at the Adult Amputation Rehabilitation program at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton, Canada. As a clinical investigator, her research goal is to facilitate the implementation of rehabilitation technology to maximize function and quality of life after amputation, and to create a sound evidence base to assist with clinical decision making.

>> Please register for the sessions by clicking here.

The agenda can be found here.