By Mark Payette, CO

R&D Manager and Product Support, Tamarack Habilitation Technologies

Rebecca North and Barry Smith from Orthotic and Prosthetic Solutions in Western Australia have come up with a clever design allowing a “no fabrication” solution to quickly “retrofit” a solid ankle AFO to one that allows motion when a client’s needs are anticipated to change. Their design “pre-articulates” the AFO prior to the initial fitting and uses a third Tamarack^™ Flexure Joint^™ to “lock up” the ankle until plantar flexion and/or dorsi flexion is desired.

For more detailed information about their design please review the article Rebecca and Barry published in “The Gazette: The Newsletter of the Australian Orthotic and Prosthetic Association Inc. Volume 8 – Issue 2 / May 2008″ titled “Technical Note: A Method for Interchangeability Between Fixed and Articulated AFO Design”.

If you have come up with a clever design or have an interesting case to share using Tamarack^™ products, Tamarack offers to pay a $100 honorarium to any technician, practitioner or their company – or $150 to your charity of choice – who submit creative uses of Tamarack products or case examples of orthotic device designs using Tamarack products and we publish them on our website, newsletter and blog. More information about this program is available on our web site. We have donated $150US to the Australian Branch of the Salvation Army in the names of Rebecca and Barry per their request. Thanks Rebecca and Barry!

Click below, to read the full Case Study:

A METHOD FOR INTERCHANGEABILITY BETWEEN FIXED AND ARTICULATED AFO DESIGN
by Rebecca North and Barry Smith BP&O

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Visit www.tamarackhti.com for more creative uses & case studies!