Views From AOPA Leadership

THE PAST YEAR-AND-A-HALF HAS certainly brought challenges, but it has been an honor to serve and represent you as AOPA’s president. I have been inspired watching you all react and adjust quickly and nimbly; you didn’t miss a beat and continued to provide quality patient care and services while supporting one another by sharing best practices.

To continue to serve you, AOPA has had to react to the changes as well. I sincerely believe while doing this, we honored our mission: Through advocacy, research, and education, AOPA improves patient access to quality orthotic and prosthetic care.

On the advocacy front, the Medicare O&P Patient-Centered Care Act has been introduced in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. A huge thank you to all who have taken action and helped get the legislation to where it is today.

To move all our legislative and regulatory priorities forward, we need your advocacy efforts. Please continue to reach out to your members of Congress and ask them to support this important piece of legislation. This year’s Virtual AOPA Policy Forum was a huge success, with more than 100 meetings held. We are planning on an in-person 2022 Policy Forum and hope you will join us. The Policy Forum is our opportunity to have our voices heard, to raise the issues our businesses and patients experience so we can continue to provide quality care.

Another tool in our advocacy toolbox is the O&P Political Action Committee. Its fundraising efforts generate the dollars to help keep in office those congressional legislators who support our issues. There is a reason it is called the Political Action Committee—all legislative efforts aimed at advancing O&P care for our patients require your action! Please get involved.

Also on the advocacy front, AOPA has been bolstering our support for the statebased efforts our members are involved in. With the support of our new manager for federal and state advocacy, we look forward to further building out these efforts in the coming year.

Not to be outdone, our research efforts over the past year have been significant. Through these efforts, we reinforced the clinical efficacy and effectiveness that we, as clinicians, provide. In 2021 alone, AOPA awarded more than $239,537.50 in research dollars through COPL, the Center for O&P Learning. We also launched a partnership with the journal Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies Engineering. More recently, we brought together the Medical Advisory Board members for a strategic planning process. The outcomes of this initiative will be shared soon. Finally, we recently hired a manager for health policy and research to assist in these efforts. All of this helped elevate the O&P research being conducted, further helping us define our value to healthcare.

Given the pandemic, we continued to provide AOPA members a wide variety of educational opportunities virtually (although we plan to return to in-person as appropriate). The staff has been hard at work getting the membership engaged in AOPA Connection, your one-stop-shop for all things AOPA.

It has been my honor and pleasure to have supported these efforts alongside the AOPA Board of Directors, staff, members, and O&P partners. Thank you for your commitment and ongoing support of AOPA!

Traci Dralle, CFm, is president of AOPA.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This column is a condensed version of AOPA President Traci Dralle’s remarks during the Annual Business Meeting at the 2021 AOPA National Assembly.

Specialists in delivering superior treatments and outcomes to patients with limb loss and limb impairment.

President Traci Dralle, CFm Fillauer Companies, Chattanooga, TN

President-Elect Dave McGill Össur Americas, Foothill Ranch, CA

Vice President Teri Kuffel, JD Arise Orthotics & Prosthetics, Spring Lake Park, MN

Immediate Past President Jeffrey Lutz, CPO Hanger Clinic, Lafayette, LA

Treasurer Rick Riley O&P Boost, Bakersfield, CA

Executive Director/Secretary (Nonvoting) Eve Lee, MBA, CAE AOPA, Alexandria, VA

Jeffrey M. Brandt, CPO Ability Prosthetics & Orthotics Inc., Exton, PA

Mitchell Dobson, CPO Hanger, Austin, TX

Elizabeth Ginzel, MHA, CPO Baker O&P, Fort Worth, TX

Kimberly Hanson, CPRH Ottobock, Austin, TX

John “Mo” Kenney, CPO, LPO, FAAOP Kenney Orthopedics, Lexington, KY

Linda Wise WillowWood, Mount Sterling, OH

James O. Young Jr., LP, CP, FAAOP Amputee Prosthetic Clinic, Tifton, GA

Shane Wurdeman, MSPO, PhD, CP, FAAOP(D) Research Chair Hanger Clinic, Houston Medical Center, Houston, TX