AOPA Survey Reports On Prosthetic Services
Bertram D. Litt *
The American Orthotics and Prosthetics Association "Survey To Determine The State of Services Available To Amputees and Orthopedically Disabled Persons" visited 125 facilities during May and June of 1961. Owners, managers, and prosthetists at these facilities provided information on all phases of their prosthetic services, including the details describing: shop personnel: methods of patient referral: the areas which they serve: attendance of Prosthetics Education Program Courses; types of prosthetic components and procedures which they use, as well as the rationale underlying their selection of these items and methods; individual techniques which they have developed; improvements in components, research, and education which prosthetists would like to see in the future. This data was analyzed during the summer. Report 1—Prosthetic Services—USA—796/ was completed in October, 1961, in time to be presented before the National Assembly of the American Orthotics and Prosthetics Association in Miami, Florida.
This Survey was originally conceived by Mr. Glenn E. Jackson, who was then Executive Director of the Association. Mr. Jackson and the members of the American Orthotics and Prosthetics Association Committee on Advances in Prosthetics—Carlton Fillauer, Chairman; M.P. Cestaro, Fred Eschen, Charles Hennessey, and Howard Thranhardt—drafted a proposal for a survey of services available to amputees and orthopedically disabled persons, which was accepted by the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation in June of 1959. The Committee on Advances in Prosthetics then appointed a special Survey Advisory Committee to guide the proposed study.
The members of this Survey Committee have worked closely with the survey staff since the inception of this study. These three Committee members, M.P. Cestaro, Chairman; the late Dr. George Young, and D. A. McKeever, have contributed tireless efforts toward the successful conduct of this Survey. They have been instrumental in shaping all phases of the study. In particular, they have been helpful in preparing questionnaires, selection of the tables for inclusion in the report, and have contributed immeasurably to the actual form which the prosthetics report has taken.
A. Bennett Wilson, Jr., one of the principal investigators for the Survey during the Pilot Study, has generously contributed his talents and advice to the survey staff since his return to the National Research Council, Academy of Sciences. Ralph Storrs, President of the Association in 1961, and Lester A. Smith, Executive Director, participated in the efforts of the Survey Advisory Committee during the past year and were also active in enlisting the cooperation of many facilities.
The 1961 Regional Directors of the American Orthotics and Prosthetics Association:
Joseph Martino, Region I
Mary S. Dorsch. Region II
Basil Peters. Region III
Bert Titus, Region IV
Durvard R. Coon, Region V
Richard C. Bidwell. Region VI
Robert Gruman. Region VII
David C. McGraw, Region VIII
Harvey Lauham. Region IX
Herbert J. Hart, Region X
August W. Pruhsmeier, Region XI
also helped in enlisting the aid of individuals in their areas and provided the Survey with listings used in assembling the universe of facilities from which the smaple was drawn.
Both LeRoy Wm, Nattress. Jr.. Project Director, and Bertram D. Litt, Associate Project Director, owe a special vote of thanks to the individuals who participated in this Survey as members of the staff. Certainly the contribuions of the eight men who took leave from their professional practices to serve as interviewers in the Survey, cannot be fully measured. These men were:
William M. Brady
Jack Gold
Claude J. Lambert
Ralph R. Snell
Eugene D. Filippis
Donald E. Hedges
Frank Malone, Jr.
James W. Stanford, III
Miss Victoria Bowen, Secretary to the Survey, also functioned as technical assistant. In addition, Robert A. Wolf assisted in the preparation and analysis of the data, and Mrs. Judy T. Bevis aided the typing of the report.
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