Question regarding product testing
Harold Powell
Description
Collection
Title:
Question regarding product testing
Creator:
Harold Powell
Date:
8/19/2003
Text:
I contacted my practitioner regarding this issue and he provided me this address and suggested I could get a response.
I have been an amputee since serving my country in South East Asia and recently attended the ACA meeting in Boston. As a consumer, and as an engineer, I would like to pose a question to this list serve if appropriate.
How does a practitioner clinically and scientifically validate if a product, component or service is superior to another?
Since loosing a leg, I have always counted on my practitioner to provide his professional opinion on what products were best for me, and I always accepted it as his opinion and nothing more and to be candid, I have always been happy with my care and the products I wear. My practitoner knows me, treats me on a regular basis, knows my activites and is therefore able to recommend the right products.
While at the ACA meeting however, I visited booths from suppliers, not providers of patient care, but suppliers of parts and pieces that were making claims about superior outcomes and better function and better comfort. When I asked for documentation, scientific studies and clinical data to support these claims however, no one, not one single booth could provide anything more than a glossy brochure.
One supplier also suggested that if I received my prosthesis from a practitioner on the special list of associated providers, that I would receive superior care an also receive superior products. But when I pressed to inquire what or how it would be superior, all I received was another glossy brochure, lots of fluff, but no facts.
As an engineer, my desire is to look at facts and figures as opposed to pretty pictures and marketing text.
I have attempted to do some web data searches to qualify why one type of foot is better than another, and I am very surprised to discover that there is no quality or quantitative research or information available regarding prosthetics.
Again, I cannot stress enough that I have always been very pleased with the care and components I have received, my practitioner takes very good care of me and the VA covers the costs. But since attending the ACA meeting and visiting the booths, I am now receiving a volume of what I will call junk mail from suppliers in an attempt to convince me to use their foot, or their liner or their knee (which is a problem since I am a BK amputee) or attend their clinic to learn more about how their products will make me more comfortable and enable me to live my life without limitations.
What concerns me is that claims of superior and better are being made with no proof to verify the claim. So back to my question, as practitioners, how do you know what is better than the next product, how do you validate what is really best for your patients before you dispense them, do you just take the suppliers word for it?
Sincerly
Harold Powell
www.navalsupport.com
Newport News VA
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I have been an amputee since serving my country in South East Asia and recently attended the ACA meeting in Boston. As a consumer, and as an engineer, I would like to pose a question to this list serve if appropriate.
How does a practitioner clinically and scientifically validate if a product, component or service is superior to another?
Since loosing a leg, I have always counted on my practitioner to provide his professional opinion on what products were best for me, and I always accepted it as his opinion and nothing more and to be candid, I have always been happy with my care and the products I wear. My practitoner knows me, treats me on a regular basis, knows my activites and is therefore able to recommend the right products.
While at the ACA meeting however, I visited booths from suppliers, not providers of patient care, but suppliers of parts and pieces that were making claims about superior outcomes and better function and better comfort. When I asked for documentation, scientific studies and clinical data to support these claims however, no one, not one single booth could provide anything more than a glossy brochure.
One supplier also suggested that if I received my prosthesis from a practitioner on the special list of associated providers, that I would receive superior care an also receive superior products. But when I pressed to inquire what or how it would be superior, all I received was another glossy brochure, lots of fluff, but no facts.
As an engineer, my desire is to look at facts and figures as opposed to pretty pictures and marketing text.
I have attempted to do some web data searches to qualify why one type of foot is better than another, and I am very surprised to discover that there is no quality or quantitative research or information available regarding prosthetics.
Again, I cannot stress enough that I have always been very pleased with the care and components I have received, my practitioner takes very good care of me and the VA covers the costs. But since attending the ACA meeting and visiting the booths, I am now receiving a volume of what I will call junk mail from suppliers in an attempt to convince me to use their foot, or their liner or their knee (which is a problem since I am a BK amputee) or attend their clinic to learn more about how their products will make me more comfortable and enable me to live my life without limitations.
What concerns me is that claims of superior and better are being made with no proof to verify the claim. So back to my question, as practitioners, how do you know what is better than the next product, how do you validate what is really best for your patients before you dispense them, do you just take the suppliers word for it?
Sincerly
Harold Powell
www.navalsupport.com
Newport News VA
--
__________________________________________________________
Sign-up for your own personalized E-mail at Mail.com
<URL Redacted>
CareerBuilder.com has over 400,000 jobs. Be smarter about your job search
<URL Redacted>
Citation
Harold Powell, “Question regarding product testing,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 6, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/221624.
