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Hello there!

My name is Hannah and I'm a university student currently doing some research into the practice of podiatry in mainland Europe (mainly France, Germany, Russia, Spain and Portugal), I am particularly interested in the growth of CAD/CAM in the production of custom Orthotics.

What I would like to know is the following,

Who would be the medical professional that diagnoses the need for a custom Orthotic insole?
How widely prescribed are custom orthotic insoles?
What are the most common analysis/diagnosis methods used? (Pressure maps? Scanning hardware? What software is used?)
Who are the technical providers of this hardware/software?
Who manufactures the custom orthotics?
How easy is it for a person to get hold of a custom orthotic without a doctors prescription?
Are custom orthotics prescribed on the national health service of the country?

For example, what appears to be the case in Spain is that you are perscribed a custom orthotic by a podiatrist, they may diagnose the need for this by using some sort of pressure analysis equipment. They will then send this scan off to a manufacture who will make the insole and send it back to the podiatrist to give to the patient. However in Germany, it appears that you can walk into a shop which makes orthopedic shoes, and they will mill the custom orthotic for you with little involvement of a doctor or podiatrist.

These are the kind of differences Im looking to find out about. Any help at all would be absolutely fantastic- as you can tell I know very little about podiatry (and other languages) and so am really struggling with this research!

Thank you!!

 

Hi Hannah,

I'm podiatrist in the Netherlands, maybe my answers can help you with your research:

Who would be the medical professional that diagnoses the need for a custom Orthotic insole?
General practioner/sports physician/orthopaedic surgeon/podiatrist

How widely prescribed are custom orthotic insoles?
Widely.

What are the most common analysis/diagnosis methods used? (Pressure maps?
Pressure plate, 2d- 3-d scanners, video-analysis, clinical investigation

Scanning hardware? What software is used?)
2d, 3d-scanner. Software most used is Parocontour / LFT / Pedcad

Who are the technical providers of this hardware/software?
Paromed / LFT (Last Foot Technology) / Pedcad

Who manufactures the custom orthotics?
Podiatrist / orthopaedic shoemaker / orthotic-labs

How easy is it for a person to get hold of a custom orthotic without a doctors prescription?
Easy, since you do'nt need a prescription to contact ed a podiatrist.

Are custom orthotics prescribed on the national health service of the country?
No, you need an additional insurance. In the Netherlands you have 'national health care' which pays for the basic medical needs. Most people have an additional insurance which covers extra medical costs like podiatry, physiotherapy, acupunctuuur, etc.

Best regards,

Ingrid Janssen