What is SAPOS ?
The SAPOS [Strategic Alliance of Prosthetic Orthotic Schools] is another development milestone resulted from the collaboration of prosthetic and orthotic schools which was initiated by the schools funded provided by The Nippon Foundation. For a number of years CSPO has facilitated this collaborative programme. The programme includes annual meetings of the schools' management and staff exchanges. This develops the capacity of the human resources within the institutes involved as well as building international and regional networks and improving the quality of rehabilitation and education services.
The objectives of the regional schools collaboration are to:
1. Share knowledge, skills and teaching materials to enhance Prosthetic & Orthotic education in the region amongst existing (and soon to be founded) Prosthetic & Orthotic schools;
2. Establish a focus group of educators from the Prosthetic & Orthotic schools in Cambodia, Thailand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to avoid duplication of work;
3. Facilitate the inclusion of other schools into this regional activities;
4. Initiate regular meetings between representatives from the Prosthetic & Orthotic schools;
5. Co-ordinate and facilitate national staff exchanges between partner Prosthetic & Orthotic schools;
6. Build regional capacity;
7. Facilitate the exchange of teaching materials;
8. Institute technology transfer;
9. Encourage cross-cultural understanding.
Annual School Meetings
These meetings were initiated in 2003 by CSPO. The meeting greatly enlarges the working group and involved representatives from The Nippon Foundation, ISPO, Japan, Australia, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand and Sri Lanka. A number of the participants were self-funded, showing the interest that exists to develop regional co-operation. The meeting encouraged participants to set goals for their activities both nationally and regionally, and to monitor their achievements on a regular basis.
These meetings:
Allow discussion on various issues related to Prosthetic & Orthotic education and the sharing of experience, knowledge, skills and teaching materials, Facilitate the development of regional professional links in Prosthetic & Orthotic education, Provide an opportunity for individuals to observe how education is provided in a range of cultural settings.
Each school was required to prepare and deliver presentations on their activities for the meetings. During the final session, a brief report on the outcomes of the meeting was agreed by the participants.
SAPOS site ( http://www.opoedh.org/ )
Our Prosthetics and Orthotics Educational Hemisphere
The development of the SAPOS Collaboration website was another step forward to provide a range of possibilities for those individuals with interest in learning more about the collaboration and activities among the schools.
The ability to post the discussion and register as SAPOS user is a good tool to move forward with the use of the benefits of information technology in Prosthetic & Orthotic field. The main objective of the development of SAPOS website is to allow effective information sharing and collaboration in the development of strategic plans for the role of Prosthetics and Orthotics education in the region.
The concept of the site was originated by Mr. Ronald Altman, a lecturer at CSPO, and it was developed by James Altman, Academic Technology Training Specialist at Northwestern Universitys Academic Technologies Services. The SAPOS site was conceived as a tool for the administrators, faculty, and staff of the member institutions to use collaboratively to further the development of all the various educational programs.
For more information: http://www.opoedh.org/
Staff Exchange Programmes
It is proposed to facilitate 4 staff exchanges per year amongst the staff of the regional Prosthetic & Orthotic schools. Participants from the Vietnamese Prosthetic & Orthotic school are invited to the Prosthetic & Orthotic school meetings and staff exchanges, on a self-funded basis. For each staff exchange a set of learning objectives is agreed by the school sending the individual, the school receiving the individual and the individual concerned. Following each staff exchange, a report is submitted by the individual on the activities of the exchange programme. The staff exchange programme provides an opportunity for individuals to observe how education is provided in a range of cultural settings.