Member Spotlight

Culture of Caring

Well-established facility focuses on pediatric orthotics and more

IN JANUARY 2000, Bernie Veldman, CO; his wife, Pam Veldman; and a technician opened Midwest Orthotic Services in Fort Wayne, Indiana. “It was Y2K, when people were worried that computers and infrastructure wouldn’t transition to a new century, so we were wondering if we’d even have electricity,” recalls Bernie.

One of Midwest’s offerings was the Surestep supramalleolar orthosis, a device the company designed for children with hypotonia. In addition to fitting some of Midwest’s own patients with the orthosis, the facility made the device available to other practices.

Over the years, Midwest expanded into several states and split Surestep off into a separate entity in 2008. The Veldmans formed a parent company, Dienen, under which both the patient-care and manufacturing sides operate. As the patient-care division continued to expand, it outgrew the term “Midwest,” and in 2019, the facility became Transcend Orthotics & Prosthetics. Pediatric orthotics remains the facility’s core business, but both orthotic and prosthetic services are offered.

Today, Transcend O&P has 13 offices in seven states and offers mobile services as well. “We have 34 mobile labs that cover about a 90-minute radius around our offices,” says Pam. Each van contains a mini-lab in the back, with grinders, dust collectors, and all the equipment needed to modify devices. “The benefit is that patients don’t have to come into the office for multiple appointments and be without their brace while we work on it,” she adds. “We set up the vans outside therapists’ offices, schools, or clinics, and patients can wait for modifications and go home with their brace.”

The mobile vans offer advantages to the practice, as well. “In a city the size of Indianapolis, for example, with our mobile labs, we don’t need five offices,” explains Bernie. “We can see patients at therapy clinics and hospitals, so we can cover a much larger area with fewer brick-and-mortar locations.”

The company focuses on education as a primary marketing tool. “We are known for having excellent education and great rapport with our referral sources,” says Suzi Klimek, Dienen’s executive vice president of sales and marketing. “We provide CEU courses for our referral sources, mostly physical therapists, and offer lunch-and-learns in doctors’ offices and therapy gyms.”

Because of Transcend’s focus on pediatric orthotics, physical therapists often serve as a key link to patients. Many of the facility’s

Myra Coleman, CO, works with a patient.

FACILITY:

Transcend Orthotics & Prosthetics

OWNERS:

Bernie Veldman, CO, and Pam Veldman

LOCATIONS:

Indiana, Illinois, Texas, Michigan, Kentucky, Missouri, and Ohio

HISTORY:

21 years

Adam Waugh, CPO, sees a patient. pediatric patients have mobility issues and are referred to therapists for improving gross motor skills. “Therapists who understand what we do can recommend us to doctors,” Klimek says.

The Veldmans pride themselves on their commitment to their team as well as to their patients. In 2016, Dienen transitioned to a 100 percent employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, which is a qualified retirement benefit that holds company stock. The move was unusual in any industry and particularly in O&P. “Everyone who is full time and has been with the company for more than a year receives shares of stock every year,” explains Bernie. “So the stock accumulates and grows in value, and when employees are ready to retire, the company is obligated to buy back their shares. It’s a great way to build a huge retirement without investing any money.”

Another company benefit is an annual retreat, which brings together employees from every office for a week of training and celebration. “It’s an expensive investment,” Bernie says, “but it’s well worth it.”

Looking ahead, the Veldmans want to grow their ESOP and expand their patient reach, while striving to achieve their “CULTURE,” an acronym that highlights compassionate care, unparalleled service, life-changing outcomes, tremendous team spirit, unrelenting drive, remarkable quality, and extreme innovation.

“We want to take care of a ton of patients and see this operation continue to flourish,” Bernie says. “When we think of the lives we’ve helped on the patient side and through Surestep, it’s an amazing thing.”

Deborah Conn is a contributing writer to O&P Almanac. Reach her at deborahconn@verizon.net.

Smart Scanning

New technology allows for scanning via app as part of the digital workflow

JONATHAN NAFT, CPO, founder of Geauga Rehabilitation Engineering and consultant to Myomo, needed 3D scanners for all of his clinicians. Existing scanners were too expensive, with some costing thousands of dollars, and none were designed specifically for the O&P industry. He believed the O&P profession needed a portable shape capture tool that had no wires and could fit in an O&P clinician’s pocket, without being shared throughout an office. Naft also wanted the ability to scan in tight spaces, close to a patient, unlike some scanners that require distance or are hard to fit behind a leg.

Working with Vince Baroni, CPO, clinical director at G.R.E. Orthotics & Prosthetics, Naft set out to create a less expensive alternative that was accurate, easier to use, and specific to O&P. He formed a company, Comb O&P, in 2019; the company’s name pays homage to a bee’s honeycomb, because shape capture in O&P is the center of workflow, Naft explains. He and Baroni, who became president of Comb, partnered with Knockout Concepts, a tech company in Columbus, Ohio, with experience in app development. During its development, the app underwent rigorous testing in the field.

“Not only did they test the app on G.R.E. patients, they rolled it out to other clinicians to make sure it filled their needs,” says Aaron Naft, global director of sales and marketing.

Satisfied with its performance, Comb officially released the app in May 2020. The software is free to download on an iPhone, and users pay a $750 yearly license fee. Clinicians may select the shape that is being fabricated, such as a below-knee prosthesis, thoracolumbosacral orthosis, upper-extremity prosthesis, ankle-foot orthosis, knee brace, or any other O&P device except for cranial orthoses.

The user glides the phone around the patient to capture the anatomy. Once the clinician reviews the scan on screen and enters a few details, it can be saved to the cloud, where it can be downloaded to a laptop or desktop computer.

“The process is all HIPAA compliant,” says Aaron, “and it uses industry-standard file formats with .stl and .obj extensions, so the data can be easily exported to a central fabricator (c-fab) or imported into a user’s favorite software.” Another benefit, he notes, is that the Comb app is not dependent on a cellular connection or wifi to capture a scan. “If you are in a rural area, or a hospital or nursing home where you can’t get a signal, the scan will automatically save in the background of the app and upload to the cloud automatically once you are in range again.”

C-fabs are essential to the process, and Aaron says Comb has relationships with a growing

A clinician scans a patient’s foot using an app created by Comb O&P.

COMPANY:

Comb O&P

OWNER:

Jonathan Naft, CPO

LOCATION:

Cleveland, Ohio

HISTORY: Less than two years

Scan of a knee

A patient’s foot number of companies that work with digital shapes, including Cascade Dafo, Spinal Tech, Boston O&P, HiTek, O&P Solutions, WIllowWood, and others.

In addition to co-marketing efforts with its partners, Comb focuses heavily on O&P-specific training and education. “Because we do the scanning part of the digital workflow process, a big part of our footprint is to promote other tools our customers can use with the scanner,” Aaron says. “A lot of my job is pointing people to c-fabs that can accept a raw scan.”

Comb offers instructional webinars on its website and is active on social media, including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Comb representatives have started attending conferences and are “winning over” some clinicians who previously relied on hand casting or were hesitant to embrace this type of technology, says Aaron. “But digital scanning and workflow is the biggest topic in O&P right now,” he adds, “so practitioners are definitely curious about it. We try to help them understand how easy it can be.”

Comb has aggressive plans for the future. Unlike existing hardware-based scanners, Aaron notes, Comb can push out updates and features to the app. The cloud-based portal will offer more options, too. For example, importing scans directly into a patient management system, such as OPIE and others, can help show changes over time to a body shape to satisfy medical necessity on a replacement device. “Comb’s volume of users brings creative ideas, and we’re listening,” says Aaron. “Digital workflow is here to stay, and we’re so excited to be a part of this growth for the benefit of the patients and the industry as a whole.”

Deborah Conn is a contributing writer to O&P Almanac. Reach her at deborahconn@verizon.net.

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