As part of my new marketing role at Taika3D, I asked my colleagues a lot of questions about custom orthotic design and the technological changes within the industry.
Now I’ve learnt so much about the developments in custom device manufacture, I want to ask a final question, which is…. “Is the industry ready to meet these changes head on?” Well, it sounds like we had better be!
According to Steve, there are good examples of where the training is already beginning to be taken seriously.
Training to competency
“By way of an example, in the UK, there are government-backed formal apprenticeships for Orthotic and Prosthetic Technicians that include developing skills working directly with patients. This kind of recognition is quite new and is good to see. Maybe businesses like ours can help support training and education to understand the role of digital design and manufacturing will play.”
Arthur was similarly encouraged when recently invited to attend an undergraduate Podiatry course at a leading US college. Digital design, and making effective use of central fabrication had made it into the course and was clearly well received. Likewise, Jari will soon give a case-study talk on design automation for custom medical devices at Newcastle University where he is a visiting Professor.
Shift to Digital
Although uptake has been a little slow, we have certainly seen the industry move to adopt digital processes. The shift from traditional physical impressions and casts to digital processes, especially 3D scanning, represents a significant advancement in the orthotic and prosthetic industry. The use of TaikaCapture, allowing clinicians to submit prescriptions and scan data digitally, not only streamlines the workflow but also opens the door to automation for creating custom-made orthotic and prosthetic devices.
I’m really grateful to the team for telling me about all this and am looking forward to being part of the continuing Taika3D journey.
We’d love to hear what you think about the impact these developments will have and welcome your feedback on this discussion.
