Letter from Don

I just returned from teaching in North Carolina, almost five hours of flight time away from here in Ferndale, Washington. What are the “DAFO concerns” so far away? Good fit, good function, just as they are here. This is not surprising to me.

When I am acting as a clinician I try to provide good fit and function to one patient. I focus on that one patient and his or her needs, and then I plan, cast and follow-up on each project on a patient and family level.

When I am working as a manager and a business owner here at our main office and DAFO manufacturing site (come visit if you have a chance), I try to help our company be more effective at supporting you in the field. In this role we have to correctly interpret your plan, the cast you’ve made and provide you with technical support as you follow up with your patient.

We know, at the heart of every DAFO we make, is a patient. I think the best point of view when considering how we should do things is from the patient’s point of view. When I work as a clinician, it is easier to maintain that point of view. But when we run our business and support our clinician customers, it is still important that we maintain a patient-centric viewpoint.

The greatest value to me from traveling to North Carolina, or to anywhere else I teach, is the chance to hear clinicians tell me how we are doing. I don’t hear all good things, but I also don’t hear all bad. On this particular trip, like most trips, I came home with a list; a list of items to work on that range from better Velcro to a foot control insert added to #1 rear entry floor reaction braces. In the next few weeks, I will be working with the team here to develop plastic splint parts that could be used to create precise control of premature infants. I will also be refining and changing some of my workshop presentation based on feedback.

The point of the ‘list’ of work is so that the child at the center of every DAFO will experience more comfort and better function the first time they put on a DAFO. It’s about maintaining a patient point of view.

Last week I received an email that reinforced my commitment to the ‘list’. The email was from the mother of a young male patient of mine who vehemently did not want a brace. At the casting appointment, he would not say a word to me or anyone during the entire hour. I had doubted that there would be any compliance with the finished DAFO. The mother explained in her email that with big pressure from his dad, the boy had reluctantly begun to wear his #2 hinged DAFO with the hot rod flame trim. She wrote to let me know that now he loves the brace and wears it during the day and every other night to help with range.

What a great email to receive. That is why I have the ‘list’. All sorts of aspects of that particular #2 hinged DAFO have been improved upon over time based on input from practitioners and patients. And because of many of those improvements, this doubting young boy had a positive experience. My work is to continue to develop, innovate and improve so that we can hear more results like that.

-- Don Buethorn

Don Buethorn, CPO, is founder-owner of Cascade Dafo, Inc., and Cascade Prosthetics and Orthotics.