Technology – between vision and implementation - Looking ahead

Looking ahead

As a conclusion, Chris Lawrie from Delcam, provided an insight into the vision of a digital orthopedic shoe. He sees the option to design a library of digital shoe design – already today there are programs for the individual construction of realistic-looking shoes at the screen. The choice of colors and materials is already easy here. According to Lawrie, with such systems, you could give the patient the virtual option to design the orthopedic shoe himself the way he likes. There are already manufacturers in the sports shoes area offering that. In the future, these limits could disappear. With the 3D-print, or the additive production, you could have individually designed shoes printed directly in the shop.

The future will show if such ideas will be marketable one day or if they purely remain technological games. The organizers of the Orthotic Technology Forum intend to observe this development attentively. The coming events next year will be held in Australia and in Canada.

by Kathrin Ernsting