The University of South Florida's Colleges of Medicine and Engineering will jointly share in a three year, $1 million dollar Federal Award supporting a "Demonstration Project on Prosthetics and Orthotics." Dr. Sandy Quillen, Associate Dean and Director of the COM's School of Physical Therapy and Dr. Rajiv Dubey, Chairman of the COE's Department of Mechanical Engineering will serve as Co-PI's on the project which is designed to build educational and research capacity in prosthetics and orthotics at USF and provide a seamless continuum of educational opportunity for prosthetic and orthotic professionals in the Tampa Bay region and state of Florida, in addition to producing state of the art educational materials to support practicing health care professionals. The project has been designed to collaborate with and complement the planned undergraduate educational program in prosthetics and orthotics currently in development at St. Petersburg College.

 

The National Center for Health Statistics estimates that there are more than 300,000 persons with lower extremity amputations currently living in the United States. An estimated 150,000 amputations are performed yearly in the United States due to chronic vascular disease or as a complication of diabetes. With the war on terror, traumatic amputations have accounted for approximately 2.4% of all the wounded in action in Iraq and Afghanistan; over 250 soldiers at this point in time. The state of Florida, due to its large population of military veterans and civilian retirees, exceeds the national average for the percent of its population considered disabled, including those with amputations requiring prosthetic services. Rapid advances in the development of biomaterials, new sensor and microprocessor control technology, and computer aided design and manufacturing have placed prosthetic and orthotic devices at the "cutting edge" of medical technology that physicians and other health care providers are challenged to understand and appropriately prescribe for their patients and clients. There is a strong need to train and educate new and existing professionals in state-of-the-art prosthetics and orthotics. . By leveraging the resources of the University, this demonstration project will create a new paradigm to integrate education, service and research in prosthetics and orthotics.