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VOLUME 4, ISSUE 2  
 2021 

 

STAKEHOLDER  PERSPECTIVES 

Kogler GF, Hovorka CF. Academia’s role to drive change in the orthotics and prosthetics profession. Canadian Prosthetics & Orthotics Journal. 2021; Volume 

4, Issue 2, No.21. https://doi.org/10.33137/cpoj.v4i2.36673 

This article has been invited and reviewed by Co-Editor-In-Chief, Dr. Silvia Ursula Raschke. 
English proofread by: Karin Ryan, M.A., B.Sc., P.T. 
Managing Editor: Dr. Hossein Gholizadeh 
 

SPECIAL ISSUE 

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ACADEMIA’S ROLE TO DRIVE CHANGE IN THE ORTHOTICS AND PROSTHETICS PROFESSION 

Kogler GF.1*, Hovorka CF.2       
 

1 
Orthotics and Prosthetics Unit, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, USA. 

2 
Orthotics and Prosthetics Program, Department of Rehabilitative Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, USA. 

 
 
 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION 

In this position paper, we describe the important role 

academia plays in shaping the orthotics and prosthetics 

(O&P) profession. In this approach, we present the 

challenges and proposed strategies for academia to 

prepare the next generation of professionals to continue to 

evolve and define the value of O&P care. This process will 

require future O&P professionals to embrace and integrate 

data driven approaches including new and emerging 

technologies as a therapeutic treatment for habilitation and 

rehabilitation.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

FACTORS INFLUENCING CHANGE IN 

HEALTHCARE  

The profession of O&P, like many health professions, is 

under intense pressure to provide cost-effective treatments 

and quantifiable health outcomes. In the United States, 

where healthcare expenditures represent nearly 18% of 

gross domestic product 1 healthcare is confronted with an 

impending paradigm shift. For the profession of O&P this 

translates into several challenges such as the provision of 

services for an increasing number of patients by a relatively 

small workforce of certified practitioners delivering these 

services at a reduced cost with the expectation of 

significant, meaningful and measurable value (e.g., clinical 

outcomes). Pivotal changes are needed in the way O&P 

services are provided. To remain competitive, the O&P 

profession will need to move away from the traditional labor-

intensive manufacturing processes and the typical clinical 

 
OPEN  ACCESS Volume 4, Issue 2, Article No.21. 2021 

 

 

Journal Homepage: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cpoj/index 

 

ABSTRACT 

This position paper outlines the important role of academia in shaping the orthotics and 

prosthetics (O&P) profession and preparing for its future. In the United States, most healthcare 

professions including O&P are under intense pressure to provide cost effective treatments and 

quantifiable health outcomes. Pivotal changes are needed in the way O&P services are provided 

to remain competitive. This will require the integration of new technologies and data driven 

processes that have the potential to streamline workflows, reduce errors and inform new methods 

of clinical care and device manufacturing. Academia can lead this change, starting with a 

restructuring in academic program curricula that will enable the next generation of professionals 

to cope with multiple demands such as the provision of services for an increasing number of 

patients by a relatively small workforce of certified practitioners delivering these services at a 

reduced cost, with the expectation of significant, meaningful, and measurable value. Key 

curricular changes will require replacing traditional labor-intensive and inefficient fabrication 

methods with the integration of newer technologies (i.e., digital shape capture, digital 

modeling/rectification and additive manufacturing). Improving manufacturing efficiencies will 

allow greater curricular emphasis on clinical training and education – an area that has traditionally 

been underemphasized. Providing more curricular emphasis on holistic patient care approaches 

that utilize systematic and evidence-based methods in patient assessment, treatment planning, 

dosage of O&P technology use, and measurement of patient outcomes is imminent. 

Strengthening O&P professionals’ clinical decision-making skills and decreasing labor-intensive 

technical fabrication aspects of the curriculum will be critical in moving toward a digital and 

technology-centric practice model that will enable future practitioners to adapt and survive. 

CITATION 

Kogler GF, Hovorka CF. Academia’s role 

to drive change in the orthotics and 

prosthetics profession. Canadian 

Prosthetics & Orthotics Journal. 2021; 

Volume 4, Issue 2, No.21. 

https://doi.org/10.33137/cpoj.v4i2.36673 

KEYWORDS 

Orthotics, Prosthetics, Education, 

Curriculum Reform, Healthcare 

Economics 

 

 

* CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 

Géza F. Kogler 

Orthotics and Prosthetics Unit, Kennesaw State University. 

E-mail: gkogler1@kennesaw.edu 

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0212-5520 

Special Issue: Health Economics in Prosthetics & Orthotics 

https://doi.org/10.33137/cpoj.v4i2.36673
https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cpoj/index
https://doi.org/10.33137/cpoj.v4i2.36673
mailto:gkogler1@kennesaw.edu
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0212-5520


 

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patient care processes based on anecdote, trial and error. 

Historically, these processes, which were once accepted 

when reimbursement for O&P services by third party payers 

were less rigorous, but they are no longer acceptable or 

sustainable in modern healthcare. Hence, there is a need 

for the O&P profession to adopt more efficient methods that 

utilize a systematic and quantifiable framework. Emerging 

evidence in manufacturing of O&P devices suggests that 

employing computer-augmented approaches, such as 

digital shape capture and additive, 3D-printing 

manufacturing methods, may soon make obsolete devices 

created by hand craftsmanship.2 In addition, the 

implementation of data science to inform evidence-based 

clinical decision-making suggests these methods may lead 

toward improved clinical outcomes and patient value.3,4 

Other challenges to the O&P profession include a looming 

workforce shortage;5 increased patient volumes; more 

complex patients, whose care must include consideration of 

multiple diagnoses; underrepresented billing codes and 

insurance practices that require evidence of efficacy6,7 and 

proof of values-based care8 with no path for reimbursement. 

If the practitioner workforce deficit cannot meet the demand 

for services, alternative methods will likely emerge from 

related medical specialties or leveraged by new business 

models such as direct-to-consumer orthoses and 

prostheses. To stay ahead of these challenges, O&P 

education must build evolving curriculum models that can 

equip students to evolve along with a rapidly changing 

technology-driven healthcare environment. An emphasis on 

subject areas such as 3D modeling/printing, data science, 

and digital diagnostics (e.g., biomedical sensing) will 

provide students with a familiarity sufficient for them to “use 

it, interpret it and explain it”,9 and to understand their impact 

on decision making and treatment interventions.9  

PREPARING FOR CHANGES THROUGHOUT 

A PROFESSIONAL’S LIFESPAN 

The academic programs that train future professionals in 

clinical practice, research, and education can fundamentally 

influence whether the O&P profession’s scope of practice 

expands or contracts, and its ability to adapt to the factors 

that drive change. Emerging technologies, market forces, 

regulatory policy, and economic costs are transforming all 

sectors of healthcare, and these factors have already 

started to disrupt current practice. To cope with these 

demands, academic programs in O&P will need to 

reimagine their curriculum beyond the existing scope of 

practice in O&P, and will need to work with accreditation 

agencies (In the US, the Commission on Accreditation of 

Allied Health Education Programs and its committee on 

accreditation, the National Commission on Orthotic and 

Prosthetic Education, as well as relevant international 

organizations) to re-examine and update the core 

curriculum requirements of the master’s degree10,11 along 

the lines we have suggested, expanding both graduates' 

skills and their ability to adapt to future shifts in the delivery 

of O&P patient care. Well-informed analyses of trends in 

medicine, healthcare, business, computer science, and 

manufacturing often provide useful forecasts for changes in 

these fields, and may also provide strategic perspective for 

O&P educators. 

BRIEF HISTORY OF ORTHOTICS AND 

PROSTHETICS EDUCATION 

In the United States, O&P is evolving from its historical roots 

as an industry consisting of highly skilled “tradespersons” 

(i.e., technicians, fitters) to an expanded recognition as an 

allied healthcare profession. Clinical practitioners in O&P 

possess an entry-level master’s degree and are supported 

by practitioner assistants and fabricators. Over the 

decades, the evolution from technician to clinician has 

required updates in the “tools of practice,” from device-

centric, hand-crafted fabrication and fitting to contemporary 

practice involving greater emphasis on holistic, patient-

centered care. This transition involved shifting the focus to 

clinical diagnostics, patient goal planning, treatment 

formulation, problem-solving and solution-based patient 

management. The shift from technician to clinician required 

a change in the curriculum which continues to evolve today. 

Academic preparation in the clinical sciences (e.g., body 

systems pathology and clinical conditions, methods of 

structured patient assessment, and clinical decision-

making), materials science, and movement sciences were 

added to the necessary proficiency training in skills such as 

custom device manufacturing. Despite practice analysis 

data that defines 90% of today’s practitioners as engaged 

in clinical rather than technical fabrication duties,10 

educational programs continue to devote considerable time 

to device fabrication skills. Urgent curricular changes are 

needed to prepare the next generation of practitioners as 

the “tools of practice” in O&P move from hand fabrication to 

digital technologies that enable more efficient, economical, 

and adaptable processes that can better support 

contemporary healthcare delivery systems. More expedient 

and efficient device delivery will be needed to manage a 

greater number of patients and to cope with shrinking 

reimbursement for services. This increased demand will 

likely prompt practice managers to adopt the use of more 

prefabricated, custom-fitted, and modular O&P systems, 

and to consider the advantages that 3-D shape capture and 

additive manufacturing may offer.2,12 In exchange for the 

time saved by improved fabrication efficiencies, 

practitioners may be able to devote more time developing 

clinical patient management skills in areas that have 

traditionally been less well represented such as structured 

patient assessment and clinical diagnostics, goal setting, 

treatment planning and assessment of clinical outcomes.  

Curriculum reform that includes technologies that are 

readily transferable to O&P and that complement clinical 

practice courses are strongly justified, according to 

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Thimbleby13 who states that “technology drives healthcare 

more than any other force”. Ideally, one would hope that the 

graduates of O&P programs are empowered to become the 

next innovators that advance the profession and thereby 

dictate, in part, the direction in which the profession evolves. 

The domains of practitioner competency that exist today will 

have to evolve if we are to secure our role as healthcare 

providers of habilitation and rehabilitation using 

technologies as part of the plan of care.  

If technology is not integrated with O&P, clinical acceptance 

may be hindered. For example, computer-aided-design and 

manufacture (CAD-CAM) has been used in O&P for over 40 

years,14 especially in prosthetics, yet the use of CAD-CAM 

in clinical orthotics practice is still relatively small compared 

to conventional fabrication of positive model creation, model 

rectification, thermoforming, lamination, and other 

processes. While we acknowledge that a generation of 

clinic owners/managers/and decision-makers may have 

missed formal education in CAD CAM methods, still there 

has been little pressure in O&P curricula to strengthen 

students' computer modelling skills beyond an introduction 

to industry specific software. 

CHALLENGES IN SUSTAINING ORTHOTIC 

AND PROSTHETIC EDUCATION PROGRAMS  

Currently there are 13 Master of Science education 

programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of 

Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), based upon 

the recommendation of the committee on accreditation, the 

National Commission on Orthotic and Prosthetic Education 

(NCOPE).15 However, the track record of sustaining O&P 

clinical practitioner education programs at U.S. universities 

is rather poor. Of the 22 clinical practitioner education 

programs developed since the 1960s, nine have been 

shuttered, representing a 41% closure rate. The dismal 

closure rate is alarming, and such vulnerability is particularly 

disconcerting given that knowledge and skills training are 

the core foundations of the profession. While there are a 

multitude of reasons for education program closures, the 

leading factors appear to be the loss of federal funding, the 

ongoing decline of state funding, high program operational 

costs, including extensive (and expensive) lab space and 

equipment requirements, and a dearth of qualified 

educators and researchers.16,17 Moreover, O&P 

enrollments are among the smallest in a university, 

delivering little economic value derived from tuition and fees 

(e.g., Georgia Institute of Technology, St. Ambrose 

University, Rutgers University, Florida International 

University).17 How can the O&P profession advance and 

develop a cohesive, visionary, long term future with such a 

vulnerable funding model? The current O&P education 

curriculum needs to be re-examined if the profession is to 

address the challenges of limited budgets, substantial 

space and equipment requirements for labor-intensive 

fabrication and projected workforce demands.  

Despite these barriers, four new education programs are 

planning to launch at universities across the U.S. in the next 

two years. These new programs have the opportunity to 

make the changes needed to ensure O&P programs remain 

viable in higher education, starting with curricular reform 

that reflects current and future O&P practice. In this case, 

greater emphasis should be devoted to areas in which 

today's O&P professionals have not had significant training, 

such as clinical diagnostics, identifying and prioritizing 

patient problems, treatment goal setting, formulation of 

treatment plan, dosage of O&P device use, prognosis, 

patient and caretaker communication and problem-solving 

skills. To counterbalance the increased emphasis on clinical 

knowledge and skill development, the technical component 

of the curriculum can be reduced by including new 

technologies that improve efficiency in fabrication 

processes, such as modular components that do not require 

custom fabrication. [We define technical fabrication as 

related to manufacture and production of devices, 

specifically thermoforming and lamination. Alignment, fitting 

adjustments and device assembly would be included in 

clinical skills.] Such changes are in line with contemporary 

practice analyses, devoting more time to preparing students 

for an imminent future of data-driven patient care, value-

based care and a wide array of efficient fabrication 

technologies. With a significant reduction of the technical 

fabrication aspects of the curriculum, programs could 

replace those areas of the curriculum with streamlined 

manufacturing processes as well as digitally augmented 

clinical decision-making (e.g., data science and artificial 

intelligence) and problem-solving. This approach has the 

potential to strengthen and solidify the clinical value of O&P 

practitioners.  

Evidence-based practice is probably the single most 

important -- and widely neglected -- element for driving 

improvements in both clinical decision-making and O&P 

curriculum. Expanding curriculum in this area, by including 

more coursework on searching, retrieving, evaluating, 

interpreting, and integrating new scientific knowledge will 

train students to utilize a systematic approach to patient 

care, using evidence to support their decision making and 

to quantify and characterize patient outcomes for values-

based care. This approach reflects trends in evidence-

based practice and values-based care that will likely 

continue into the future.  

The concept of interdisciplinary and interprofessional 

collaboration is another critical curriculum addition. Due to 

the growing complexities of patient care and emerging 

technologies, it is no longer wise for clinicians to solve 

problems in a silo on their own;18 students must also learn 

these skills as part of their professional education. Just as 

interprofessional health care teams can leverage their 

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collective intelligence for shared decision-making,19 

engaging students from related programs (i.e., physical 

therapy, occupational therapy, engineering) in mock or 

actual patient case conferences can help shape their 

approach to patient-centered care19,20  and, help elevate the 

profile of O&P in the health care profession. Universities that 

support the interprofessional education concept are on the 

rise21,22, and O&P programs will need to develop 

partnerships with multiple disciplines to capitalize on this 

emerging “value-added” curricular opportunity. An 

additional benefit of interprofessional education is that it 

encourages students to develop and practice good 

communication skills, a critical factor in understanding and 

communicating patient needs, priorities, and compliance, 

and for sharing knowledge and ideas among team 

members. Communication skills were ranked as the highest 

priority for O&P employers hiring residents in the United 

States.23 In addition, communication skills were identified as 

an area of needed development for the future of O&P care 

across the globe.24  

How do we advance data-driven decision-making? You do 

this by strengthening a student’s exposure to research in 

their clinical training. Graduates who understand and 

interpret the medical, allied health science, movement 

science and engineering scientific literature in a systematic 

and clinically relevant way will be trained to apply their 

knowledge correctly and directly, leading to more informed 

successful patient assessment and treatment. These 

practitioners of the future will instinctively weave the 

scientific method into their daily practice, formulating 

testable questions for patients, devising data collection 

protocols, then analyzing, interpreting, and applying the 

data they collect. In turn, this process will yield the evidence 

that defines value of care and justifies clinical treatment 

decisions.  

PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL 

ENCROACHMENT  

The increasing demand for O&P services, a projected 

shortage of providers, and market pressure for cost-

effective treatments are creating opportunities for other 

health professionals to fill the needs unmet by O&P today. 

Moreover, technology-driven products and systems may 

yield an even greater challenge to the domain of O&P 

practice. Patient-consumers are prone to see an orthosis or 

a prosthesis as a “device” to address their needs, and may 

not fully appreciate the added value of an expert clinician A 

contemporary orthotist and prosthetist should manage the 

patient, identify their needs, and match them with the 

technology/device that will best meet those needs as part of 

a therapeutic “body motion control” treatment plan. 

However, the consumer-direct marketing of orthoses and 

prostheses at reduced cost will likely be perceived as an 

attractive option for future O&P users, particularly in 

circumstances where healthcare disparity and barriers to 

access are an issue. 

For comparison, the profession of dentistry dealt with 

strikingly similar issues of professional encroachment over 

40 years ago when the technical specialty of "denturists" 

successfully lobbied to provide dentures directly to patients, 

without a dentist and at significant cost savings.25,26  

Alternative access to dental services continues to evolve 

with a 20-plus year history of consumer-direct marketing of 

mail-order options for dentures and orthodontia (i.e., teeth 

aligners).27 Consumers use home impression kits, photos, 

or scans for shape capture, which are then used to 

manufacture a person-specific fit of dentures or teeth 

aligners. The O&P profession is now experiencing the same 

trend, with consumer-direct prostheses and orthoses or 

print-your-own devices using a downloadable 3D file and 3D 

printer. Currently, there is limited data available on the 

impact or efficacy that the consumer-direct movement will 

have on the O&P profession, and on habilitation and 

rehabilitation in general but we consider it a real, albeit 

emerging, challenge. 

Such encroachments into O&P are likely to advance and will 

be difficult to curtail. However, with diversely skilled 

practitioners and strategic business acumen, the O&P 

profession can influence what aspect of the market to 

uphold and preserve by building the next novel businesses 

in O&P. Academia can prepare future practitioners with the 

technical and business acumen to respond to the 

profession's service and market demands, addressing the 

entire spectrum of habilitation and rehabilitation in countries 

around the world. 

NEEDS AND PRIORITIES 

The O&P profession can only estimate the future healthcare 

economic determinants and market impacts, but it can 

nonetheless strategically position itself for change. Because 

the demand of O&P services is expected to increase in 

tandem with a shortage of certified orthotists and 

prosthetists, more certified practitioners in O&P are needed. 

The principles of supply and demand cannot prevail without 

a stable environment for increasing the number of 

graduates entering the field; the expanded capabilities we 

suggest here, in clinical patient care and cost-effective 

manufacturing, can begin to curb the threat of other medical 

specialties competing for market share. But it is only with 

strategic curriculum changes that focus on strengthening 

skills in digital health technologies and evidence-based 

decision-making, that future O&P clinicians can confidently 

step into their role as "human interface experts” of 

wearables, exoskeletons and individualized assistive 

technologies. These reconceived practitioners will also be 

seen as valuable professional assets in interdisciplinary 

health care. 

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Clearly academicians and university programs cannot 

change the profession on their own. They will need strong 

allies for leadership and support, through partnerships with 

industry, corporations, businesses, and professional 

organizations to forge the path for the future of the O&P 

profession. Open, reflective partnerships with industry, 

corporations, and professional organizations will be critical 

to prepare the O&P profession for the future changes 

ahead. Foundations in evidence-based practice using 

digital diagnostics, data science and artificial intelligence 

that augment clinical decision-making are the primary 

technological changes expected across the entire 

healthcare sector. Therefore, our education programs must 

begin to strengthen the curriculum in these areas to create 

the new platform of skills and knowledge for practitioners. 

As a result, it is to be expected that clinical practice will 

change. Therefore, expanding a practitioner’s skill set with 

three-dimensional computer modeling (3D CAD) could be a 

strategic advantage for the profession. Most allied health 

professionals do not possess 3D CAD computer skills and 

such a skill set would distinguish the O&P profession. The 

current clinical mastery O&P practitioners are renowned for, 

producing negative impressions and positive model 

rectifications to create custom-molded devices, could be 

replaced or augmented with new competencies in 

computer-based scanning, 3D modelling and manufacturing 

processes and techniques. The O&P profession has an 

opportunity to be proactive by preparing for the health 

economic changes that will alter clinical practice as we know 

it. The current students entering O&P programs are digitally 

and technologically savvy and as such, possess the skillset 

for this type of future and the new students expect it will be 

the same way they will practice in O&P. The profession 

must ensure that our future practitioners are empowered to 

respond to the forthcoming economic changes healthcare 

will impress upon medicine, habilitation and rehabilitation. 

CONCLUSIONS 

Numerous healthcare economic factors are primed to 

provoke a major paradigm shift in the way O&P is practiced. 

Curricular reform and innovation are therefore needed for 

O&P education programs to ensure that the next generation 

of O&P professionals are empowered to integrate emergent 

and novel technologies within the span of their professional 

careers. Although machines can outsmart clinicians, they 

can’t out-kind, out-humor or out-finesse them. Technology 

has a role in O&P, but only in the service of augmenting 

patient care. A critical aim is to ensure that an O&P 

professional’s knowledge is distinct from other healthcare 

professionals and is regarded as clinically valuable. To 

lessen professional encroachment, O&P professionals will 

need to adapt to change and work toward becoming the 

primary innovators, to guide maturation of the field, and 

seek to expand the domain of practice. O&P education 

programs will continue to be at risk for closure due to 

economic burdens they impose. Strengthening clinical 

decision-making skills and decreasing the technical 

fabrication aspects of the curriculum will be important in 

moving toward a digital and technology-centric practice 

model while also making programs more sustainable and 

competitive in their respective universities.  

CALL TO ACTION 

A “Visioning of the Future - O&P Summit” will be essential 

for academicians and community stakeholders to evaluate 

the trends in healthcare and the skills and knowledge 

needed for the next generation of practitioners. The last 

O&P summit to debate the future and draft a strategic plan 

for action took place 16 years ago.16 Orthotic and prosthetic 

communities of stakeholders should initially develop their 

own vision of the future, culminating in a comprehensive 

summit meeting whereby each community shares and 

debates their vision and followed by development of a 

strategic plan for the profession’s future and its place in 

rehabilitation. Participating O&P communities would be 

represented as follows: 

• Professional credentialing organizations (i.e., ABC) 

– The upcoming practice analysis of O&P 

professionals will inform trends in practice. The last 

practice analysis was conducted in 2015. 

• O&P accreditation bodies (CAAHEP and NCOPE) 

would be careful listeners, to not bias the debate on 

new core curriculum updates for O&P clinical 

practitioner training and education.  

• Industry – Practitioners and manufacturers will 

provide important perspectives to their needs and 

concerns.  

A Visioning of the Future - O&P Summit would serve as the 

culminating meeting to set the strategic educational plan for 

the future. The process is critical because the profession 

needs ownership and unification to move forward. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

The authors wish to thank Denise Caruso, BS for her 

editorial efforts. 

DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING 

INTERESTS 

The authors declare there are no conflicts of interest. 

SOURCES OF SUPPORT 

The authors declare no sources of external support for this 

project. 

REFERENCES 

1.What is the value of values-based healthcare? Innovations in 

Care Delivery [Internet]. New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst. 

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https://catalyst.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/CAT.17.0558 

2.Wang Y, Tan Q, Pu F, Boone D, Zhang M. A review of the 

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7 

Kogler GF, Hovorka CF. Academia’s role to drive change in the orthotics and prosthetics profession. Canadian Prosthetics & Orthotics Journal. 2021; Volume 4, 
Issue 2, No.21. https://doi.org/10.33137/cpoj.v4i2.36673 

ISSN: 2561-987X 
ACADEMIA’S ROLE TO DRIVE CHANGE  

Kogler & Hovorka., 2021 CPOJ 

Special  

 

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AUTHORS SCIENTIFIC BIOGRAPHY 

Dr. Géza F. Kogler, is an 

Associate Professor and 

Director of the Master of Science 

in Prosthetics and Orthotics 

Program at Kennesaw State 

University (KSU) in Kennesaw, 

Georgia. He received his 

doctorate in bioengineering from 

the University of Strathclyde, 

Glasgow Scotland and a 

postgraduate certificate in 

orthotics from Northwestern 

University Prosthetics-Orthotics 

Center in Chicago, IL. He earned 

a baccalaureate degree in Fine Arts from Wayne State University, 

Detroit, MI. Dr. Kogler has been involved in orthotics and 

prosthetics education since 1986, serving as a faculty member at 

several universities (i.e., Florida International University (USA), 

Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (USA), Jönköping 

University, (Sweden), Georgia Institute of Technology (USA), 

Kennesaw State University (USA). He also is the Principal 

Investigator of the Clinical Biomechanics Laboratory at KSU. His 

current research interests include powered exoskeletal systems for 

rehabilitation, sensing applications for diagnostics and 

musculoskeletal health, foot ankle biomechanics, and plantar foot 

tissue mechanics. Dr. Kogler has received numerous awards for his 

research in foot ankle biomechanics from the American Society of 

Biomechanics, the International Society of Biomechanics and the 

International Society of Prosthetics and Orthotics. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Christopher Hovorka, 

completed Bachelor’s degrees in 

Exercise Science (University of 

New Mexico) and Prosthetics 

and Orthotics (University of 

Washington), clinical residenc-

ies in Orthotics (Southern Illinois 

University School of Medicine) 

and Prosthetics (Connecticut 

Children’s Medical Center, 

formerly Newington Children’s 

Hospital), a Master’s degree in 

Allied Health Science (University 

of Connecticut) and PhD in 

Applied Physiology with focus in Biomechanics and Neuromotor 

Control (Georgia Tech). He held faculty appointments at the 

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, St. Ambrose 

University, Georgia Tech and the University of Pittsburgh. He has 

received continuous research grant funding for over 20 years, in 

areas ranging from cognitive learning and curriculum development 

to the biomechanics and clinical outcomes of persons using lower 

limb prostheses, orthoses and footwear. He also developed the 

nation’s first accredited entry-level master’s degree in Orthotics and 

Prosthetics (O&P) at Georgia Tech. Creation of that program 

sparked a national reassessment of the entry-level standards in 

O&P, and eventually adoption of the master’s degree as the entry-

level standard for O&P in the United States.  Currently, he is an 

Assistant Professor and Director of a developing O&P program at 

ETSU which will become the state of Tennessee’s first entry-level 

Master of Science in O&P.  

 

 

https://doi.org/10.33137/cpoj.v4i2.36673

