MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
FLO-TECH® Orthotic & Prosthetic Systems Inc.
By DEBORAH CONN
Postoperative Priorities Company offers products designed to manage the residual limb
R
OBERT N. (BOB) BROWN
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FEBRUARY 2018 | O&P ALMANAC
experience—that rigid is better, although there are cases where the opposite may also be true. FACILITY: “Rigid is generally a safer route FLO-TECH® Orthotic to go,” she says. “It gets patients ambulatory sooner, allows more & Prosthetic frequent access for wound care, Systems Inc. helps to heal more quickly, and prevents further residual injury.” LOCATION: Bob, a past president of Trumansburg, the American Academy of New York Orthotists and Prosthetists, retired in 2008. He and Kathy, OWNERS: who remains company president, Kathleen E. Brown have relocated to Nevada. Even and Robert N. Brown in retirement, Bob continues Sr., CPO(e), FAAOP to develop new products. FLO-TECH has five employees HISTORY: in addition to Tiffany and her husband, Travis Mitchell, who 30 years works as the property manager. The 4,500-square-foot facility features machine, oven, and assembly/packing rooms, plus additional multipurpose spaces. Tiffany and her husband live on the approximately 50-acre site in a nearby cottage. A baby, born last July, spends time in a nursery tucked into a corner of the office. Travis Mitchell works in the “With so few of us, we all wear forming room.
many hats and do multiple jobs,” Tiffany says. For example, the office manager, Jill Koczent, works in the assembly room, handles distributor calls, and manages the website. Tiffany handles legal aspects of the business, including compliance with standards from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and New York state laws. Traditionally, FLO-TECH has marketed through industry meetings, and Tiffany has plans to market the company more toward individual practitioners. FLO-TECH plans to introduce a new product developed by Bob, called ProPrep, a Perpetual Dimension prosthetic system for use as a rigid removable dressing, early ambulatory prosthesis, and as a preparatory prosthesis. Details of the device are under wraps until its launch. “We’re eager to find out more about ProPrep and how it fits into our future plans,” Tiffany says. She appreciates how much her father, Bob, still contributes to the company after all this time. Maintaining FLO-TECH’s family feeling, for staff, practitioners, and patients, remains a priority. Tiffany is eager to immerse herself more deeply in the prosthetics industry and all the details of the product line that FLO-TECH offers. “I’m open to many possibilities,” she says. “We really mean our motto, ‘Life Begins Again.’” Deborah Conn is a contributing writer to O&P Almanac. Reach her at deborahconn@verizon.net.
PHOTOS: FLO-TECH ® Orthotic & Prosthetic Systems Inc.
first trained in orthotics and prosthetics at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio to serve as a medic during the Vietnam War. That experience shaped his career. He became a certified O&P practitioner, and with his wife, Kathy, operated a number of patient-care offices throughout the Finger Lakes region of New York. In the 1990s, Bob patented the Adjustable Post-Operative Preparatory Prosthetic System, or APOPPS®. This three-part prosthesis allows the practitioner to provide a continuum of care from the time of amputation, through early weight bearing, until the patient can begin walking independently. The device can be a vital link in the process of taking patients from amputation to definitive prosthesis. APOPPS led the Browns to launch FLO-TECH®, a separate company from the patientcare side, which continues to specialize in sockets for immediate postoperative care that allow for early ambulation, effective edema control and knee flexion, improved access for surgical-site care, and postoperative rehabilitation. “The point is to manage the residual limb,” says Tiffany Brown, Bob and Kathy’s daughter, who is vice president of the company. She notes that, in the debate over a soft or rigid device for postoperative care, FLO-TECH has generally found—after considerable research and
The FLO-TECH team