Advanced Palpation & Clinical Assessment in Orthotics and Prosthetics

This live continuing education course on June 13th 2026 is designed to enhance palpation accuracy, tissue discrimination, and clinical assessment skills for certified orthotists and prosthetists. The course moves beyond static landmark identification and emphasizes load-based, movement-integrated evaluation strategies to inform device design, component prescription, socket/interface modifications, and referral decisions.

Participants will review the neurophysiology of skilled touch, somatosensory integration, and motor-sensory coupling as foundations for advanced palpation. Instruction will focus on differentiating tissue types (contractile vs. non-contractile), identifying load intolerance patterns, assessing joint mobility and joint play, and residual limb tissue capacity.

Through structured lab sessions and case-based clinical reasoning exercises, attendees will integrate palpation findings into defensible clinical decisions. Emphasis is placed on distinguishing device-related mechanical problems from neuromuscular compensation patterns.

This course is hands-on and assessment-based, with direct application to orthotic and prosthetic patient management.

Please contact Brittany Jones for more information- bjones@iiop.edu