On this episode of The O&P Check-in: an SPS Podcast, we sit down with Surestep Director of Sales and Certified Orthotist, Rob Novak.
The following includes an excerpt from our conversation, edited for length and clarity. Click here to listen to the full interview.
The O&P Check-in: an SPS Podcast unpacks trends and stories from the tight-knit community of O&P professionals. From patient care to technology, best practices, and regulations, this podcast features topics that help you stay current.
How does Surestep approach orthotic design for children?
We have different levels of control for our lower extremity orthoses to treat children across different diagnoses and functions: Dynamic Stability, Functional Support, and Alignment Control.
Our Dynamic Stability devices move with patients but stabilize them. Maybe that's not the right choice for a certain patient, and we need more support. In that case, we would opt for Functional Control, which offers more support and less freedom of movement. Other times, we have to be very controlling of the motion and the biomechanics in the body, so we would use Alignment Control. Surestep allows all these things to come together to treat a very dynamic patient.
What strategies or technologies help ensure orthotic devices are both functional and comfortable?
I look for their performance, verbal cues, and over time—non-verbal cues. If you have an appropriately fitting device on a child, and it allows them to have more stability, they take off. They start running down the hallways, they start high fiving, they're telling their mom they want to go to the park. That tells me that I have comfort and a child who realizes, “Oh, I had a hard time keeping up with my siblings, my peers—let me go test these things out and see what I can do.” I have something that is working for them.
Are there any new tools or materials out there you wish were more widely available?
When I started in the field, plaster, fiberglass, polypropylene, copolymer, polyethylene was what we had available. As technology has advanced, things that were available to the aerospace and automotive industries have slowly filtered down to us. Surestep developed a patented plastic that has more flexibility and dynamic rebound to it. It can move, deflect, and come back to normal. Plastics, composites—that's where the field is going. It provides structure for them when we need it, and it provides dynamic flexibility for whatever they want to do.
To hear the entire conversation, click here:
Did you know?
Surestep just released the SMO3D, which reimagines their compression-based design with modern 3D printing; lightweight and flexible, the SMO3D provides the support needed to improve balance and coordination without restricting movement.
Learn more about the SMO3D.
