By JOSEPHINE ROSSI
Simply the Best THREE OUTSTANDING RESEARCHERS SHARE DETAILS OF THE WORK THAT EARNED THEM ONE OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED HONORS IN THE O&P PROFESSION
MEET THE 2021 WINNERS
ORIGINALLY PRESENTED IN 1996,
in memory of O&P education pioneer Howard R. Thranhardt, the annual Thranhardt Awards have become synonymous with exceptional educational information and the highest caliber research advancing the O&P field. This year also marked a milestone for the award and lecture series—25 years of honoring the best and brightest minds in the profession. During the celebratory event, held during the AOPA National Assembly in Boston, the three 2021 winners presented their work to attendees in person and virtually. Andreas Hahn, MSc, PhD, discussed his project, “The Effect of Microprocessor-Controlled Exo-Prosthetic Knees on Limited Community Ambulators: Systemic Review and Meta-Analysis,” and Chrysta Irolla, MS, MSPO, CPO, and Emily Nelson, MSE, MSOP, CP, expounded on their study, “Treatment Parameters for the UCSF Pectus Carinatum Orthosis: A Pilot Study.” O&P Almanac recently spoke to all three honorees about their research and what it means for the future of O&P patient care.
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SEPTEMBER 2021 | O&P ALMANAC
Andreas Hahn, MSc, PhD, holds the global corporate responsibility for Otto Bock’s clinical research activities. He was trained as a physicist at Oxford University, and he currently co-chairs the ISPO Industry Advisory Group’s outcome measurements working group. He previously received the Thranhardt Award in 2014 and 2019. Chrysta Irolla, MS, MSPO, CPO, explored her interest in patient rehabilitation while obtaining her Master of Science in engineering design from Northwestern University, and she subsequently decided to focus on patient care and earn her MSPO from The Georgia Institute of Technology. Irolla is now the clinical manager and residency mentor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Emily Nelson, MSE, MSOP, CP, pursued a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan with hopes to design prosthetic components. After a career stint in process engineering in the consumer healthcare manufacturing industry, the desire to work with patients led her back to the MSOP program at Eastern Michigan University. Nelson is now a certified prosthetist and completed her orthotics residency at UCSF.
Dr. Hahn, what compelled you to investigate the benefit of MPKs for limited ambulators? Andreas Hahn: This topic had been in my focus for a long time. People with disabilities are treated very differently in different social security systems. In Germany, people with limb loss are entitled to receive state-of-the-art technology to compensate their disability. It was recognized very early on that, specifically, amputees with limited
community ambulation capabilities over-proportionally benefit from advanced safety features. In 2014, I was able to present—also at the Thranhardt lecture series—that mobility grade rating has very little predictive value when it comes to the utilization of the benefits of microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knee components. Still, it was argued that the scientific evidence was not sufficient to mirror what could so clearly be experienced in clinical practice.
