IVO forced to work with global cooperation on assistive technology
The World Health Organization WHO works on the so-called "GATE"-Program. GATE stands for Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology. Part of this program is the development and introduction of an index of types of aids and appliances, in order to provide world-wide access to them - thus this program will have a big impact on the world-wide treatment with aids and appliances in the future and this way also on the work of orthopedic shoe technology.
The German Central Association of Orthopedic Shoe Technology (ZVOS) therefore organized an event, together with the IVO, within the framework of the trade fair OST in Cologne. The aim was to especially inform the supply industries about the GATE-program and to hear their point of view on this topic.
A WHO-representative, Mister Chapal Khasnabis, participated in the IVO-Congress in Paris in March, in order to get information about orthopedic shoe technology. Mister Khasnabis also held a lecture on the current state of the GATE-program. In this framework the participants of the IVO-Congress could get information about how the GATE-program can affect orthopedic shoe technology and what the industry can do on a world-wide scale to support people with the need for aids and appliances to get these.
Key data on global treatment with aids and appliances
Some key data on global treatments with aids and appliances, as cited by WHO, show how important the GATE-program is:
• The access to Assistive-Technology-aids and appliances (AT-aids and appliances) is a fundamental right for all with a need for them. This right is reinforced through the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities-Convention (CRPD-Convention) on rights for persons with disabilities.
• Only 1 out of 10 persons world-wide, that need a treatment with aids and appliances, has access to a treatment.
• In the year 2050 presumably 2 billion people will need such a treatment with aids and appliances.
• The United Nations (UN) have charged the WHO with the improvement of the treatment with aids and appliances and respective services. WHO initiated the GATE-program in order to meet this demand of the UN.
Furthermore WHO and ISPO work on the development of standards in the area of prosthetics and orthotics. Since the services of orthopedic shoe technology also belong to this area, the IVO tries to support the users of aids and appliances within orthopedic shoe technology in this framework. If you are an ISPO-member yourself, I would like to ask you to contribute at the ISPO that the benefit of orthopedic shoe technology for people will not be overlooked. We need orthopedic shoemakers who are committed to make the topic orthopedic shoe technology more known and to call attention to the possible benefit of treatments for people! International cooperation and presence are more important than ever, otherwise there is the danger that our profession's performance for people with foot problems is easily ignored and replaced by less developed and less progressive low-grade foot treatments.
by Karl-Heinz Schott
