Leading rehabilitation therapists from Centers Health Care in Buffalo and Hanger Clinic joined together on January 15, 2020 to offer many of Western New York’s top physical and occupational therapists an overall education on the latest improvements and advances with amputee gait and prosthetic technology. The symposium, which was a Continuing Education (CEU) Presentation, was called, “Improving Transtibial Amputee Gait and Post-Operative Prosthetic Modalities” and took place at Ellicott Center, the 160-bed nursing home and rehabilitation center on Seventh Street in Buffalo.

“Centers Health Care’s goals when planning this year’s continuing education symposium at Ellicott Center, was to build off of the momentum generated from last year’s two symposiums that Centers health Care hosted, as well as to empower our local health care professionals through new evidence based education,” said Travis Womer, Regional Rehab Director in Western New York for Centers Health Care. “We believe that fostering a greater network of local health care professionals and therapy providers through continuing education is key to delivering and advocating for our patients. Healthcare professionals may work for different companies but we all pursue one goal which is to deliver the best care possible.”

Centers Health Care and Hanger Clinic have partnered to host three symposiums over the last two years to educate local healthcare providers in new state of the art technology and treatment approaches for the Amputee population.

More than 50 physical and occupational therapists attend Hanger Clinic’s symposium at Ellicott Center

Presented by Daniel Wardle, a Certified Prosthetist/Orthotist (CPO) and clinic manager with Hanger Clinic in Amherst, NY, the evening was not only filled with discussions and Q&A’s, but also demonstrated the newest technology that Hanger Clinic is using for their patients having to do with gait analysis. Mr. Wardle also demonstrated the importance of how patients at certain nursing homes and rehabilitation centers (like the ones belonging to Centers Health Care) truly benefit from investing in new therapeutic equipment and technology.

“At Hanger Clinic, we are dedicated to empowering human potential by providing our patients with the best possible, customized care and devices to help them reach their goals. Centers Health Care helps ensure patient success by providing the very best rehabilitation to the limb loss and limb difference community, and has invested in offering the best technology to assist in their treatment that most therapists dream of,” said Wardle. “Regarding the gait analysis treadmill, it is not often I get to play with ‘toys’ this cool.”

More than fifty professionals attended, which included physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, occupational therapists, and certified occupational therapy assistants.

“I wanted to partner with Centers Health Care mainly because of their willingness to provide amputees with the opportunity to receive prosthetic rehabilitation, plus the knowledge of Centers’ therapists of how to train amputees to use their prosthetic devices after they’ve been custom-designed and delivered by Hanger Clinic,” said Paul Selph, Certified Prosthetic Assistant & Business Development Associate with Hanger Clinic. “Many skilled nursing facilities may not keep amputee patients through prosthetic delivery and most therapists have only worked with one or two prosthetic wearers a year or in their career, but Centers Health Care therapists do prosthetic rehab daily.”

Of the nearly 50 facilities under the Centers Health Care umbrella, both the Ellicott Center on Seventh Street and the Buffalo Center on Delaware Avenue are Buffalo regional locations. With more than 800 locations nationally, Hanger Clinic has locations on Delaware Avenue in Buffalo and on Harlem Road in Amherst.

“Joining together with the experts from Hanger Clinic goes such a long way for our amputee patients and residents, plus the education the therapists and case managers gained from this symposium is priceless,” said Womer. “Demonstrating the newest technology in prosthetics, Mr. Wardle clearly revealed these new advances, which is something everyone who attended can be proud of and, the bottom line is that we want to improve the lives of these residents.”