WHO publishes Assistive Product List

Only one in ten persons in need of assistive technology does actually have access to it. With the Global ­Cooperation on Assistive Technology (GATE) the World Health Organization (WHO) set out to change this. In March of this year, a list with 50 of the most important assistive technologies was created at a consensus meeting in Geneva. This priority Assistive Product List (APL) is likely to influence health policies globally. The IVO was involved in this process and promoted the inclusion of services provided by pedorthists.

The IVO (Internationaler Verband der Orthopädie Schuhtechniker), the international body for pedorthists, played a role in the process of setting the APL. Over the recent years a number of meetings took place including a GATE research working group meeting. The last few steps in developing the APL (priority Assistive Products List) was a survey earlier this year. The IVO informed its members about the list and encou­raged its members to motivate their patients to participate as well. Over 10000 people from 161 countries completed the global survey. That shows you how important your involvement in the survey was. 

Following the survey a consensus meeting on the development was held in Geneva in March this year. Pedorthics was represented at the meeting through the IVO. Prof Dr Klaas Postema, medical doctor and rehabilitation specialist, represented the interests of pedorthics at that meeting in Geneva. The good news is that the final APL includes a number of services provided by pedorthists in particular:

8. club foot braces

23. orthoses lower limb

39. therapeutic footwear; diabetic, neuropathic, orthopaedic

 The APL is likely to influence health policies globally and locally over the next decade. That will lead to a higher demand for pedorthic services. A higher demand for research in regards to those services and to an improved provision of such services.

 (read the complete article of former IVO-president Karl-Heinz Schott in the new issue of foot&shoe which is out since August 12, 2016)