Medical Advisory Board

Background

Prosthetics 2020

Prosthetics 2020 is a collaborative effort to operate as an adjunct to AOPA’s ongoing ‘Survival Imperatives.’ Prosthetics 2020 is a partnership open to interested companies who want to take a strong, proactive role in shaping the drivers of prosthetic patient care five years down the road. If you share a commitment to protect, fortify, and enhance the recognized, scientifically-substantiated value of prosthetic care in the minds of payers, patients and the general public, you will want to consider making an investment to be part of Prosthetics 2020.

The first initiative of Prosthetics 2020 was the RAND Corporation, “Economic Value of Advanced Transfemoral Prosthetics”. The final report is published on RAND’s website and has been published in a special supplement of the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.

Who is Involved?

To ensure clinical efficacy a Medical Advisory Board (MAB) was created to provide the necessary clinical knowledge to oversee research development and communicate the findings to patients, providers and payers, including CMS.

The Medical Advisory Board introduces themselves and their involvement.

	Douglas G. Smith, MD Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Medical Center Seattle, WA
	Kenton R. Kaufman, PhD W. Hall Wendel Jr. Musculoskeletal Research Professor Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN
	Paul F. Pasquina, MD Walter Reed Army Medical Center Washington, DC

Prosthetics Steering Committee

Purpose and the Goals

To protect and grow the Lower Extremity Prosthetic (“LEP”) market through an outcomes based medicine approach that timely prosthetic services saves lives and money. This will be accomplished by:

1. Defining and establishing the health economic value of current LEP products/services (K3/K4)
2. Expanding the value of LEP products/services by defining new patient indications and population that will benefit from current and new prosthetic technologies (K1/K2)

The goals are to:

1. Improve the future reimbursement landscape for LEP.
2. Define and provide the appropriate technology to the appropriate patients to reduce the current trend of providing the lowest cost technology to all patients.
3. Define new patient segments that can benefit from LEP technology.
4. Separate the O&P profession from Durable Medical Equipment (DME) in the mind of the payers.

AOPA will be managing this effort with the assistance of a small expert Steering Committee to be appointed by AOPA’s President. The Steering Committee is responsible for advancing research proposals, coordinating with the Medical Advisory Board and making other recommendations/decisions, subject to the overall AOPA governance framework via the AOPA Board of Directors.

‎Maynard Carkhuff, Vice Chairman and Chief Innovation Officer at Freedom Innovations
Jim Colvin, Director of Engineering, WillowWood, Mount Sterling, OH
Andreas Kannenberg, MD, PhD, Executive Medical Director, North America, Ottobock, Austin, TX
Michael Oros, CPO, LPO, FAAOP, Hanger Clinic Zone Vice President, Oak Park, IL
David Moser, PhD, BEng, BSc, Head of Research, Endolite Technology Centre, Hampshire, UK
Traci Dralle, President of AOPA
Eve Lee, MBA, CAE, Executive Director of AOPA

Orthotics Steering Committee

AOPA is honored to announce Alan Davis, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, John R. Fisk, MD, of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, and Alberto Esquenazi, MD, of Moss Rehab at Elkins Park as members of the new Medical Advisory Board for the Orthotics 2020 program. Much like the MAB for Prosthetics 2020, the Orthotics 2020 MAB serves to ensure clinical efficacy and to provide the necessary clinical knowledge to oversee research development and communicate the findings to patients, providers and payers, including CMS.

The first Orthotics 2020 Medical Advisory Board meeting was held on December 11, 2018 at the AOPA Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. Progress reports were provided for ongoing Orthotics 2020 research projects in the areas of Osteoarthritis; Stroke; Traumatic Spinal Injuries and Plagiocephaly.

Stakeholder subgroups for each of the categories above continue to meet on a regular basis to review the progress of ongoing projects and advise accordingly. AOPA is excited to transition Orthotics 2020 into a vital enterprise to protect the orthotic services upon which patients depend, and to begin populating a stronger research base around issues on the value of orthotic services.

The RAND Research Project

The first project undertaken in the Prosthetics 2020 initiative was the RAND Research Project. After reviewing proposals from RAND Corporation and two other health economics “think tanks,” AOPA commissioned RAND Corporation to complete a comprehensive, independent, validated study to establish the value proposition for prosthetic services to amputees, which focuses on advanced prostheses and includes K2/K3 comparisons. RAND will be expanding its initial scope to include economic analysis for three types of transtibial prostheses, including dynamic response (energy storing and release) foot, microprocessor controlled ankle foot system, and powered ankle foot system. The results will be incorporated into the final report that covers both advanced transfemoral and transtibial prostheses. In addition to the study and final report, it is expected that this joint effort will likely end up comprised of three components- the study and final report, as well as a free-standing modeling tool based on the RAND simulation and a white paper outlining AOPA’s vision. The final report is published on RAND’s website. The manuscript has also been published in a special supplement of the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation resulting from the AOPA World Congress.