ACA Board Chairman and Ossur

[Wayne Renardson]

>From OANDP-L with permission of Mr. James Addams, Prosthetist

My momma would call this a conflict of interest. I have no idea what 
ACA (they represent amputees and not the industry--indeed) might call 
it.  

Wayne Renardson
----------------------

Back to the Ossur debate. For those of you waiting for the smoking 
gun to prove that Ossur is and will be attempting to take your 
patients away from you, here it is.     

Ossur has just sent out invitations to patients to attend an Amputee 
Mobility and Performance Clinic 2003. These clinics are being held in 
Nashua, Chicago, San Diego and Kansas City.  These free one-day 
clinics are being taught by Robert Gailey and Kurt Collier.     

There are three aspects of the brochure that I find extremely 
distressing:  

First: one of the claims made in the brochure, and this is a direct 
copy of the text. 

“Prosthetic Components-make the right Choice. Learn about design and 
functional difference among available components and learn how these 
options may benefit you.”    

Second:  this brochure was brought to me by one of my patients who 
informs me he has NEVER contacted Flex Foot or Ossur. In fact, he 
wanted to know why he was receiving this junk mail from Ossur and 
concluded that I must have sold his name to Ossur. The only way Ossur 
could have accessed this patient’s address is from the warrantee 
card. There is no other explanation.   

Third: Kurt Collier, a previous employee of Ossur and one of the 
presenters for the seminar, is promoted as being the current Chairman 
of the Amputee Coalition of America.  Looks like Ossur is using their 
money to purchase all the patient contacts and influence they can in 
our industry.  

Are you ready to have an Ossur representative and Chairman of the ACA 
evaluate your patient at these seminars and then tell them what is 
wrong with the prosthesis you made and then recommend that they be 
fit with an Ossur product from an Ossur facility?  

What Ossur is doing is dead wrong. It is bad for patient care, it is 
bad for our industry, and it is bad for our reputation.  If you are 
still supporting Ossur by using their products, stop and take a good 
long look at Ossur business practices, They are about pushing Ossur 
product and pushing Ossur sales. They do not appear to care about 
patients or the industry as a whole.    

Call Ossur and ask for a copy of the brochure so you can see for 
yourself, or better yet, ask one of your patients. I am sure they 
will receive a brochure very soon from Ossur.     

James Addams
Prosthetist