July - August 2012 (PDF Version) - New York Chiropractic College

News Briefs
New Orthotics Elective Gains Traction - “From the Ground Up”
Starting in September, Associate Professor Dennis M.
Homack, DC, MS, began teaching a class with a big
name – Advanced Lower Extremity Movement Analysis
and Uses of Orthoses – and a significant instructional impact.
Homack, who serves as NYCC’s liaison to Foot Levelers, said,
“The elective is a significant step in orthotics instruction; no
other school is doing one.”
The new, single-credit elective is available to fifth-, sixth-,
and seventh-trimester chiropractic students as well as to interns
assigned to the Seneca Falls Health Center. Currently,
more than 70 percent of chiropractors recommend some type
of orthotic to their patients. NYCC now provides interested
chiropractic students with the opportunity to better understand
the science behind orthotics, assess their application to
particular healthcare conditions, experience orthotics firsthand,
and scan others for purposes of discerning contact patterns
each foot makes on a flat surface when bearing weight.
Literature Supported
In developing the new course, Homack drew from literature
and from the significant clinical experience of NYCC’s clinical
faculty. The course was reviewed by the chiropractic faculty
and clinicians, and vetted through the Curriculum Committee.
According to Homack, instruction extends beyond postural
and gait analysis, and will address gait disturbances due to
disease, injury and natural aging. Where orthotics are recommended,
the chiropractic students will have learned how to
scan, order, and fit them.
With the new program in place, faculty, staff, and students
in programs other than the Doctor of Chiropractic program
will still need their clinician’s recommendation as part of their
treatment plan; however, Doctor of Chiropractic students at
the Seneca Falls campus may now choose to be scanned and
receive their orthotics without clinician approval as an educational/interest
opportunity. While NYCC’s other health centers
are equipped to scan for orthotics, the Campus Health
Center is the only one that dispenses them without cost to
the recipient. Therefore, students at the other locations must
return to campus to be scanned if they wish to receive their
complimentary orthotics.
Dr. Dennis Homack (second from right) discusses Foot Levelers orthotics
with (from left) chiropractic interns Ciara Luettgen, Michael Bokor, and
Tim Huang.
Research
Just as patients are enjoying added support from their orthotics,
the orthotics industry, too, is finding support for their
products through scientific research – some of it performed
here at NYCC. Investigating Foot Levelers custom-molded
orthotic intervention products, Dean of Research Jeanmarie
Burke, PhD, and Assistant Professor Owen Papuga, PhD, were
tasked to identify and assess the neuromuscular benefits of
orthotics. According to Burke, “Our research on Foot Levelers
orthotics revealed neuromuscular benefits of orthotics for balance
control and running economy.” Drs. Burke and Papuga
are currently involved in clinical projects to better understand
the neuromuscular benefits of orthotics in treating patients
with chronic low-back pain – specifically, the effectiveness of
Foot Levelers orthotics on reducing pain and improving coordination
during balance and walking tasks. This program also
provided information on the reliability of the scanner technology
for prescribing Foot Levelers orthotics.
Foot Levelers also recently awarded NYCC a $243,000
grant for a randomized control trial performed by NYCC’s
Veterans’s Administration Residency Director Adjunct Professor
Paul Dougherty, DC, at the Canandaigua Veterans Administration
Medical Center. The project is designed to assess the
effectiveness of custom foot orthotics in veterans from the
ages of 18 to 65 years with chronic low-back pain and to evaluate
their effect on pain and disability in this patient population.
over a two year period.
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