NCPO staff members Renee Mackenzie, Aaron Williams & 3rd year student Simon Yap demonstrate AFO casting

Open Day 2008 at the Bundoora Campus of Latrobe University took place on the 31st of August and saw the NCPO fill the Health Science Clinic building with presentations, research and device demonstrations. The aim of all this was to explain and promote a career in clinical prosthetics and orthotics.
Over the course of the day, approximately 150 prospective students were keen to investigate undertaking a Bachelor of Health Science/Master of Clinical Prosthetics and Orthotics degree. NCPO staff members and 17 students fielded multiple questions relating to the new curriculum, the Paralympics, specific P&O devices, job prospects, working internationally and research in prosthetics and orthotics.
Many thanks to the staff and student volunteers who contributed to making the NCPO representation at Open Day 2008 a wonderful success.

Posted September 2008

The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was set up to honour the memory of Sir Winston Churchill. The fellowship awards travelling fellowships known as Churchill Fellowships to a number of Australians each year. The Trust’s aim is to reward proven achievement with further opportunity in the pursuit of excellence for the enrichment of Australia.
Sarah Anderson was one of 25 Victorians across many professions who were successful in winning a Churchill Fellowship this year.
Sarah will be comparing prosthetics and orthotics curricula across a number of tertiary institutions between September and November this year. She will travel to Germany, UK, USA, Sweden and Hong Kong to speak with staff and view facilities. Sarah will bring this information back to the NCPO and provide valuable information to assist in the development of the new curriculum, and ultimately to the benefit of our graduates and their clients.
A ceremony was held at Government House on 18th July and the fellowships were awarded by the Governor of Victoria, Professor David de Kretser AC. Interestingly, Sarah was travelling at the time in Cambodia leading a student tour, so the award was presented in her absence.

Posted September 2008

In the lead up to the Olympic Games and Paralympics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) heard many cases of athletes appealing against their exclusion from the games for one reason or another. The case of Oscar Pistorius v the IAAF generated considerable discussion and debate in world electronic and print media.
Last year, Oscar Pistorius placed second in the 400 m in the South African national athletics championships and was a possibility for selection in their Olympic Games team even though he is a bilateral transtibial amputee. Pistorius is known as “The Blade runner” because he uses Össur Cheetah carbon fibre running prostheses. In January, 2008, the governing body for athletics, the IAAF, ruled that Pistorius was ineligible to compete in the Olympic Games because his carbon fibre prostheses gave him an unfair advantage. In May, 2008, the CAS overturned the decision of the IAAF and ruled that Pistorius was eligible to compete in the Games. Unfortunately, in the end, Pistorius was not selected for the South African Team.
The ABC produced a story on Oscar Pistorius and carbon fibre prostheses for their television science program, Catalyst. Associate Professor Tim Bach featured in the program, explaining aspects of the biomechanics of carbon fibre prostheses. As part of the program, Dr Bach conducted tests on Australian Paralympian Don Elgin in the Movement Laboratory of La Trobe University’s Musculoskeletal Research Centre. A video of the program can be viewed on the ABC website at:
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2320343%20.htm
An opinion piece written by Dr. Bach about the Pistorius case is available from the La Trobe University web site at:
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/opinions-2008/opinion-aug0108.html

Posted September 2008

Dr Michael Dillon delivered an Ischial Containment course at APC Prosthetics from the 14th-18th July, 2008.
This four day course included lectures, tutorials and practical sessions designed to provide clinicians with a theoretical understanding of the principles of ischial containment and the clinical skills necessary to begin fitting this socket design in practice. For the more experienced clinicians, the program provided the opportunity to reflect on their own practice and develop skills to improve the quality and reliability of their ischial containment fittings. Each participant made a complete prosthesis incorporating an ischial containment socket and one-on-one feedback formed part of the assessment for the course along with group tutorial exercises and an exam.
Feedback from the course was very positive. Subjective comments highlighted the utility of the methodological approach to assessment, casting, cast modification and fitting that relied on careful observation and measurement. Moreover, clinicians reported that the program enhanced their understanding of other transfemoral sockets and improved problem solving skills.
If you like to know more about this particular ischial containment course or negotiate a course suitable for your facility, please contact Michael Dillon on 03 9479 5889 or via email: Michael.Dillon@latrobe.edu.au

Posted September 2008

As you may be aware, the Faculty of Health Sciences underwent an administrative restructure in 2007. As a result of this, we may have lost some of our data on newsletter subscriptions.
If you are recievening the newsletter and no longer wish to, or you know somebody who wants to receive the newsletter, please contact the editor via the details in the box below.
Please note that we no longer distribute the newsletter electronically. However, if you would like to be notified about the publication of each new newsletter by email rather than receive a hard copy, please notify John Lockwood on J.Lockwood@latrobe.edu.au. You could then download the newsletter yourself from our website. This will help the NCPO to reduce costs as well as positively impact on the environment.
The electronic copy in PDF format is placed on the NCPO website soon after the printed version is published. The URL for the site is:
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/ncpo
The main stories from each newsletter are also posted to our news page at:
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/ncpo/news.html

Posted March 2008