Enhancing Quality of Orthotic Services with Process and Outcome Information

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Orthotic device use by Service members and Veterans is growing, yet outcomes assessment and quality measure development for orthotic services lags far behind other healthcare specialties. Orthotists acknowledge the value of quality measures, but cannot adopt measures used in other healthcare settings because they have not been validated for orthosis users. Thus, the objective of this project is to develop data collection modules that can be used to improve the quality of services for users of ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs), the largest group of orthosis users.

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1. Identify issues that are important to the quality of care for AFO users as well as items and instruments that can be used to assess these quality issues.

2. Evaluate and validate patient-reported outcome instruments using performance instruments.

3. Specify items required for quality measure development and design data collection modules that can be used in quality improvement efforts and to demonstrate accountability of health care delivery.

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Heinemann AW, Fatone S, LaVela SL, Slater BCS, Deutsch A, Peterson M, Soltys NT, McPherson V. Orthotists' and physical therapists' perspectives on quality of care indicators for persons with custom ankle-foot orthoses. Assist Technol. 2021 Jul 4;33(4):206-216. 

Fatone S, Jerousek S, Slater BCS, Deutsch A, LaVela SL, Peterson M, Soltys NT, McPherson V, Heinemann AW. Identifying Instruments to Assess Care Quality for Individuals With Custom Ankle Foot Orthoses: A Scoping Review. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2021 Apr;102(4):709-734. 

Heinemann AW, Deutsch A, Fatone S, Soltys N, McPherson V, Peterson M, Slater BCS, LaVela SL. Patient and Clinician Perspectives on Quality-of-Care Topics for Users of Custom Ankle-Foot Orthoses. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2020 Jun;99(6):540-549.