Upwardly Mobile
Miles to Go
After a daunting (by Southern California standards) winter, spring has sprung. I can tell because my suitcase, which wintered comfortably in my hall closet since Medtrade in Orlando, Fla., last October, has now taken up residence in my living room, where it's easier to reach at a moment's notice.
Spring is a busy time for the rehab world. Clients who've had to protect their chairs from snow and salt (so Easterners tell me) are now, like my suitcase, re-emerging. At the same time, manufacturers have new products to brag about, which means a lot of great sights to see. Since we last chatted, MM's staff has visited Scottsdale, Ariz., where wildflowers are blooming early thanks to abundant winter rains, and where National Seating & Mobility held its annual symposium. Then we dropped in on another desert hot spot — one where mega-hotels and casinos are always sprouting anew from the Las Vegas soil — for Medtrade Spring, an event that seems to become more of a must-see every year. Then all the way across the country to Edison, N.J., for the first of this year's consumer-targeted Abilities Expos. And in the midst of all that, we took in dinner and a Tech-on-Tech open house put on by The Ability Center, a top-notch adaptive automotive mobility dealer in our own backyard.
We have show coverage on all of it in our MM Beat section starting on page 10.
But our travels are nothing compared to the extra miles some of our readers travel to make sure their most challenging clients get the mobility solutions they need. We've gathered some amazing "Success Stories" beginning on page 22. Read about your peers' responses to truly challenging client diagnoses, and the mobility equipment they used (or created) to heed a variety of calls. While you're flipping through the pages, take a look at how United Seating & Mobility turned their own case studies into powerful, personal statements, and learn about Aicardi Syndrome, a condition so rare only a few hundred little girls in the world share it.
During a spring when Medicaid cutbacks and federal funding guidelines are like looming storm clouds, these mobility and rehab stories are the silver linings — and a reminder that taxpayers and politicians alike need to hear more about the tremendous good being done in this industry.
Meanwhile, we'll keep hitting the road in search of new products, new assistive technology, new mobility ideas to help you go the extra mile. There's the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) conference and VGM's Heartland Conference in May, AAHomecare's Legislative Conference and the Abilities Expo in June...
This article originally appeared in the May 2005 issue of Mobility Management.