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AposTherapy Biomechanical Devices

Discussion in 'General Issues and Discussion Forum' started by Mark Russell, Dec 11, 2012.


  1. Members do not see these Ads. Sign Up.
    Anyone seen the full page advertisement in The Times today for the 'unique' devices calibrated by specially trained physiotherapists called AposTherapy devices for the treatment of knee pain? Promoting the hard sell like some other miracle devices, has anyone had any experience of these?
     
  2. That's the ones. You had any experience of them?
     
  3. davidh

    davidh Podiatry Arena Veteran

    Mark - thanks for highlighting.

    I'll give them 16 months (give or take, depending how much cash they've had thrown at them) before they fade into obscurity.

    They may work a bit better than the foot-nibbling fish:D.
     
  4. Possibly, but I don't see BUPA paying for the fish or even prescriptive orthotics..... Looks similar to the kind if advertisingby a well known osteopath and his miraculous heel pain orthotics. Anyone from the industry know who is behind these?
     
  5. fishpod

    fishpod Well-Known Member

    looks a bit like a certain les,s work must need some tires for the rolla. suckers beware
     
  6. Andrew Ayres

    Andrew Ayres Active Member

    About this time last year I was in my final year at uni. Some guys from apostherapy came and gave a lecture in the evening. The next day one of the guys was working in the gait lab trying to calibrate the devices. It took him all day and in the end gave up.
     
  7. Here's the very informative ad. Any idea what these things cost?
     

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  8. Admin2

    Admin2 Administrator Staff Member

  9. Thanks for that Admin. Hadn't seen the earlier posts. Gosh, between Dennis's foot typing, Rhubarbs Miracle Cure-alls and now this APOS System, I have to ask, what has podiatry been playing at for the last two decades. Three thousand quid for a pair of these bouncy shoes - endorsed by our friends at BUPA - sixty thousand satisfied customers over, what four years......that's a lot of money. Here we are arguing over who should cut toenails and these guys are selling, let's say, interesting products at an incredible rate. Mhmm. Even if they are crap, they are still taking a lot of business away frompodiatry. And if they aren't up to mark, how would a disgruntled customer feel about parting with say five hundred pounds to a podiatrist once they don't work?

    Had a little incident recently involving a physio who had seen one of my patients recently - and without asking what they were prescribed for or contacting me, proceeded to advise my patient that the orthotics I had supplied the previous year (for FnHL) were "wholly inappropriate and a complete waste of money because they didin't support the arch and placed a lot of pressure on the inside of the heel". Right. So better have some of the prefabricated orthotics his practice supplies. One wonders if this aggresive and unprofessional approach by some physios and osteopaths and chiropractors in the biomech and orthotics fields is but a small sample or representative of something more widespread....
     
  10. The physiotherapist that made such a fuss during the Q & A session with Simon Bartold, Joe Hamill and myself at the Biomechanics Summer School in Manchester six months ago probably falls into this category. He is supposedly friends with Blaise Dubois.

    If a physiotherapist, physical therapist, another podiatrist or a medical doctor had said that to one of my patients, I would first call him to tell him/her I didn't think this was appropriate behavior. If the behavior persisted however, I would contact an attorney who would send him a letter regarding the slander he is spreading throughout the medical community and the legal consequences of continuing his slander. That, I'm sure, would stop this type of nonsense immediately.
     
  11. I have no issue with clinicians of other disciplines supplying devices, providing they do so ethically and with good foundation - same with colleagues in podiatry, but you have to question the methodology and business approach of the hard sell. Makes for very sceptical patients....
     
  12. Jo-Pod

    Jo-Pod Member

    Had a couple of patients in Singapore who was using the apos therapy and had worse problems after two falls within a week span due to the istability they provide.

    The patients found it impossible to climb stairs with the apos shoes. They have two circular discs in the sole which forms the weight bearing surface. They are rounded and have they ability to be adjusted. The theory behing this is to change the forces on the knees and by doing so claims to heal OA. Even if that were the case, the patients I saw who wore them were of greater risk of falls than anything else.
     
  13. davidh

    davidh Podiatry Arena Veteran

    Off-topic - but I like the foot-strat in your avatar:cool:.

    Good point about falls with apos shoes.
     
  14. NewsBot

    NewsBot The Admin that posts the news.

    Articles:
    1
    The outcome of a novel biomechanical therapy for patients suffering from anterior knee pain.
    Haim A, Segal G, Elbaz A, Mor A, Agar G, Bar-Ziv Y, Beer Y, Morag G, Debi R, Atoun E.
    Knee. 2012 Dec 26.
     
  15. NewsBot

    NewsBot The Admin that posts the news.

    Articles:
    1
    Long-Term Effects of AposTherapy in Patients with Osteoarthritis of the Knee: A Two-Year Followup
    Yaron Bar-Ziv, Eytan M. Debbi, Yuval Ran, Shaike Benedict, Nahum Halperin, and Yiftah Beer
    Arthritis; Volume 2013 (2013)
     
  16. cpoc103

    cpoc103 Active Member

    Sorry for late response guys, coming to this thread late.

    Mark I have to agree with your summation of the physio and chiro worlds, I practice in sydney and our practice consults in two other states. We often get our pts ringing up sometimes weeks after we prescribe a device saying that their physio or chiro has said the devices we prescribed are rubbish as they put too much pressure at the heel and not enough arch support.

    Our practice manager has on a couple of occasions rang some of these clinicians and asked what the hell they were playing at saying this!

    When we ascertained there credentials it turned out both of these particular physios had no additional lower limb biomechanics training. Unbelievable!! The funny thing is of these cases we get, we ask the pt 'but has your condition/ pain improved and they always respond yes!!
    So to your question is it a relatively small sample or does this go across the board I'm thinking its a bigger issue than we think, as I also had similar responses when working with the NHS!!

    Col.
     
  17. maxants33

    maxants33 Active Member

    Some sports re-hab guys who I was seeing as a patient told me that insoles are only good for old people who cannot manage strengthening exercises. I had not told them I was a pod student at that point...
     
  18. NewsBot

    NewsBot The Admin that posts the news.

    Articles:
    1
    A unique foot-worn device for patients with degenerative meniscal tear.
    Elbaz A, Beer Y, Rath E, Morag G, Segal G, Debbi EM, Wasser D, Mor A, Debi R.
    Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. 2013 Feb;21(2):380-7.
     
  19. Osteo Bob

    Osteo Bob Welcome New Poster

    APOS therapy appears to be still going strong.

    This is a link to the patent with descriptions and drawings of the devices: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20130165834

    I also read that they have raised $12 million dollars in one round of corporate fundraising and $8 million dollars in a second round. So they're pretty serious about the product.

    I'm astonished by the cost (£3400 I believe in the UK).

    Ignoring the cost, patients have to wear the devices for an hour per day (presumably whilst on their feet). I would have thought two sessions of Tai Chi each week would achieve a similar result:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19877092

    Any further thoughts?
     
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