IVO meeting in Cape Town

by Karl-Heinz Schott

IVO-Board-Meeting in Cape Town (from left): Oliver Dieckmann, Germany,  Serge Mathis, President, France, Hughes Bontemps France, Koenraad Vansteenwegen, Belgium, Karl Heinz Schott, Australia, Beat Amann, Switzerland, Rian Veldhuizen, Netherlands, Olav Toornend, Portugal, Jonathan Strauss, Canada.

During the ISPO world congress in Cape Town, the IVO held a board meeting for which IVO-president Serge Mathis welcomed representative from eight IVO member countries.

 

Value of IVO membership was discussed and the member expressed the benefit they gain from IVO membership. Canada mentioned that the IVO network allowed them to do a research project; Australia credited the IVO network helped to establish the Bachelor of Pedorthic program at SCU. The IVO helps members to get access to an international network of colleagues. This helps to improve once own operations. A number of contacts are regularly made to help young pedorthists / orthopaedic shoemakers to work overseas for some time. Jonathan Strauss, the Canadian representative, reported that there are student internship as well as jobs available in Canada for pedorthists. (For more details please write to Jonathan Strauss via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

 

A key focus laid on the report on the progress for the IVO 2018 in Toronto, which is shaping up to be a great event. The call for papers went out and is closing soon. Abstract should be brought in soon to be on the program. Abstracts can be submitted in English, German and French. Get onto it to talk to the pedorthic / orthopaedic shoe technique world about your good work. The Canadians will come with a delegation to Cologne in October to present on the congress development. There are still exhibition spaces available. Please check http://ivo2018.com for more details in English, German and French.

Other points on the agenda were the co-operation with ISPO. Serge Mathis as IVO President spoke on the ISPO open board meeting about the IVO. Part of the discussion is accreditation of pedorthic education. The German ISPO president Michael Moeller attended the IVO board meeting.

Which way is research and education going and how is it connected? The different countries reported about the news in their pedorthic world. A lot of similarities were obvious like the request for evidence based services that is heard in every IVO member country. There seems to be a trend in a number of countries namely Belgium and Australia to allocate funding much more consumer or patient centred as opposed to the traditional model where the prescriber made the request for what should be funded.

Research was on the agenda of the report form the Netherlands. The Dutch association is actively involved in research and we will see more outcomes in future. Germany reported on the 100 year anniversary of the professional organisation which was celebrated in Leipzig. Oliver Dieckmann spoke about the recent contract issues and the ISO standards project.

The meeting concluded with a dinner at a South African Winery just outside of Cape Town. The next meeting will take place in Köln in October around the OST Messe.