Alastair Ward - Prosthetics Academy Clinician

I graduated from The University of Salford with a 1st Class (Hons) degree in Prosthetics and Orthotics in the year 2000. Following this, I immediately started work with Blatchford at the Sheffield Mobility and Specialised Rehab Centre where I had a fantastic five and a half years. At the M&SRC I became a keen advocate of Energy Return Feet as well as early Microprocessor knees during their infancy and so when the opportunity arose in 2006, I made the decision to leave the clinical environment to join Blatchford’s products division. Here I joined the Sales and Education team to help the launch of new products during what was an exciting period of innovation.

During my time with Blatchford, my role gave me a great opportunity to meet and work with some fantastic people – both clinicians and end users - and to make many lifelong friends along the way. I also gained great experience in supporting the UK market as well as an in depth understanding of the intricacies of Prosthetic Product design and comparison. It is fair to say that when it comes to Prosthetic Products I am a bit of a geek – I like to know not only what each component does but also to understand in depth why exactly it works the way that it does. I am sure many in the UK are acutely aware that this interest extends to other electro-mechanical devices outside of Prosthetics as well. I blame coming from a family of engineers.

At the beginning of 2020 I decided a new challenge was in order and I was excited to accept the opportunity to make the switch to become a part of the expanding Ottobock UK Academy team. I think it is fair to say that I thought things would be different, but starting in March and spending the first few months in lockdown was not something that I could have foreseen. However, every cloud has a silver lining and this time already gave me the opportunity to start to get a much more detailed look at the intricate detail of products such as DVS, Kenevo, C-Leg4, Genium, Genium X3 and the very interesting Meridium foot. These are all products I have admired from a far, so to get to understand them better has been an exciting challenge so far. I join a great team within a company with exceptional products. I am looking forward to sharing my new knowledge and continuing to share my existing knowledge and expertise with you while supporting you and your end users going forward.