MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Spinal Technology
By DEBORAH CONN
Bracing for All Hours O&P fabricator adapts to customers’ schedules to provide spinal orthoses and more
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OCTOBER 2018 | O&P ALMANAC
Spinal Technology President Jim Tierney reviews X-rays for brace design.
COMPANY: Spinal Technology OWNER: Jim Tierney LOCATIONS: West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, and Louisville, Kentucky HISTORY: 27 years
A CAD/CAM technician renders one of the company’s orthoses.
Technicians modify molds for various spinal orthoses.
scoliosis and pride ourselves in being versed in knowing and understanding the techniques applied in all the braces being used in the orthotic world,” he says. Tierney credits his success to some savvy business decisions early on. “When I first started with trauma bracing, most patients stayed in the hospital for two to four days after surgery, which allowed us time to make and deliver a device. We saw the trend moving to only one day in the hospital, and I knew we had to come up with a plan,” he says. Tierney met with representatives from UPS and FedEx and learned about their shipping processes. In 1996, after visiting the headquarters of both shippers, Tierney decided to build his second Spinal Technology facility in Louisville, Kentucky—home of UPS. “That gave me an edge” on trauma thoracolumbosacral (TLSO) braces, he says. The ability to ship overnight from Louisville meant that practitioners could order an orthosis as late as 9 or 10 p.m. EST at night and receive the finished product
Deborah Conn is a contributing writer to O&P Almanac. Reach her at deborahconn@verizon.net
PHOTOS: Spinal Technology
N 1975, JIM TIERNEY was 16 years old and attending a vocational high school welding program when he discovered and started working in the world of O&P. Tierney took part in the school’s cooperative educational program, which allowed him to alternately work full time for one week and after-school the next week. After graduation, Tierney spent 12 years in the idiopathic scoliosis clinics of Children’s Hospital of Boston—first as a technician and then as a clinician, working alongside physicians and physical therapists. “It was an enormous and vital education for me in understanding adolescent scoliosis,” he says. In 1991, Tierney decided to launch his own central fabrication company specializing in spinal deformities, making scoliosis and trauma braces. “Spinal Technology began as a small, boutique operation” in Massachusetts, he recalls, “but after we began attending regional O&P meetings, we started to expand. We only sell to CPOs, and a number of practitioners were already familiar with me and the quality of my work.” Today, the company, with 152 employees spread between its two locations, specializes in corrective scoliosis bracing. In addition to full daytime scoliosis bracing, Spinal Technology introduced a new device, the Providence Nocturnal Scoliosis® orthosis. Later, Tierney created the Flex Foam Body Brace®, for which he was granted a patent. “We realize there are more than just a few methods of managing adolescent
the next morning, especially if they were on the West Coast. “This was a great help to clinicians, too,” says Tierney. “Rather than having to drive to the hospital in the middle of the day, they could attend to their busy practice and swing by the hospital in the late afternoon or evening to serve trauma patients.” The result was a 50 percent expansion in Spinal Technology’s TLSO business. The company also embraced CAD/CAM early on. “A central fab facility is only as good as the number of molds you have,” says Tierney. “In 1994, I went to Europe and bought the largest carver I could find. We were able to increase our mold inventory from 900 to about 6,000.” Spinal Technology holds scoliosis education seminars at regional and national meetings and abroad, provides educational courses, and advertises in trade publications and on social media, says Bob Burns, director of marketing. The company also maintains a staff of certified practitioners and CAD/ CAM and other technicians to answer questions from customers. The company recently introduced a new bracing process, the SCT Modification SystemSM, which provides a precise and measurable analysis of rotational forces by considering the three planes of the body—the sagittal coronal, and transverse planes; and introduced a new program asking practitioners to send back in-brace X-rays of patients, so that Spinal Technology may more accurately assess and improve outcomes. “I come in every day trying to think up new ideas,” says Tierney. “Whether it’s a new manufacturing process or how we can support our customers better, there’s always room to grow.”