Vietnam
Since 1990, Prosthetics Outreach Foundation has assisted thousands of children and adults throughout Vietnam who suffer from limb loss or deformities. In providing these services, POF aims to build the local capacity of the communities we serve through training of medical personnel and through the transfer of appropriate technologies. POF does this through two program areas, orthopedic surgery and treatment of congenital clubfoot.
Prosthetic Services:
Over the last 20 years POF has partnered with the Ministry of Labor Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) to improve the quality of the prosthetic service to thousands of patients living in the Northern provinces of Vietnam. POF has provided technical training , workshop equipment, introduced polypropylene materials and developed locally manufactured prosthetic and orthotic components. POF also introduced a model of rehabilitation outreach to provide services living in rural or remote locations. POF has now transferred all prosthetic projects over to the appropriate Vietnamese facilities where they provide a continuum of care. POF continues to monitor services and remains available to consult with clinical or technical issues as they arise.
Surgical Outreach:
For over 10 years, POF has partnered with the American Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) to send teams of experienced orthopedic surgeons from the United States to Vietnam. These surgeons volunteer their services to help build the surgical capacity of Vietnamese orthopedic surgeons through a unique combination of hands-on instruction in the operating room, and more formalized information shared during the annual surgical conference in Hanoi. Approximately 60 children and adults receive orthopedic surgery in Vietnam for foot deformities each year through this surgical outreach program.
Clubfoot Treatment:
Since 2007, POF has been helping clinicians in Vietnam to prevent a lifetime of unnecessary suffering through early intervention & Ponseti clubfoot treatment. Resource for clinics, doctors, parents of children with clubfoot and the general public of Vietnam. In 2011, POF proudly launched a national clubfoot treatment program in Vietnam in partnership with the Vietnam Ministry of Health. The goal is to provide consistent treatment at all clubfoot clinics in Vietnam.
A new website was launched on April 18, 2012 to promote the Vietnam Clubfoot Program, a nation wide clubfoot treatment program in Vietnam supported by both Prosthetics Outreach Foundation (POF) and the Vietnamese Ministry of Health.
