FIREFLY SUMMIT 2017: PODIATRIC MSK

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What if you could chat with the UK’s top podiatrists over a glass of wine? What if they shared their “clinical gold” in practical quickfire presentations? What if you could spend the afternoon hiking, surfing, or golfing with those very same people? Or the evening at one of Ireland’s oldest pubs?

This year’s event promises to be distinct. The Firefly Summit 2017: Podiatric MSK will see 24 of the profession’s top minds, 12 female and 12 male, join over 100 delegates in Sligo, Ireland’s adventure capital and home of Firefly Orthoses.

Across September 29th and 30th, you’ll have the opportunity to acquire CPD points through a series of quickfire lectures. Learn from the UK and Ireland’s most renowned podiatric consultants and practitioners as they share their hands-on clinical practices. Advance your professional expertise by learning their “Clinical Gold”. 

The Firefly Summit seeks to connect you to these leading minds by removing the barriers of traditional conferences. A world famous surf spot, a renowned hiking destination and home to the world’s finest links golf courses, in Sligo you’ll get to dialogue with Podiatry’s best in relaxed atmospheres both in and out of the conference environment.

THE SPEAKERS

Emma Cowley, Sarah Davies, Hannah Yirrell, Emily Ball, Katherine Cook, Sarah Cameron, Sophie Roberts, Eileen Dolan, Claire O’Kane, Ruth Mackie, Diane Nicholl, Nicola Blower, Ian Griffiths, Nick Knight, Jon Palmer, Trevor Prior, Wayne Edwards, David Cashley, Glen Foley, Martin Mc Geough, Kevin Catterall, Kevin Catterall, Mark Smith, John Chadwick, Greg Gillanders.

Perched on the edge of Europe, Sligo is Ireland’s hidden jewel. Framed by spectacular mountains and the roar of the Atlantic ocean the landscape has a record of drawing creative spirits, leaving an indelible influence on those who visit. And with direct flights from London, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh to Ireland West Airport, Knock, escaping to Sligo is a breeze.

This year we wanted to make the summit experience a little more collaborative. Not only are the speakers already discussing topics, but they want to know what you’re interested in hearing about.

To make the event as relevant to you as possible we’re taking your suggestions as part of the registration process. Have your say by joining the waitlist now.

 Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire – W.B. Yeats
Tickets for the this year’s summit are available soon. Register for the waitlist to learn when, and you’ll enter yourself to win 1 of 100 free tickets. Numbers are limited, and we’ll soon close entry, so sign-up now.

 

JOIN THE WAITLIST

Firefly play small role in The Foot Project

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The Foot Project saw a team of 6 podiatrists visit refugee camps in Greece in December 2016. Firefly donated a selection of over the counter orthoses which were prescribed refugee patients who could benefit from orthoses.

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Plymouth University Launch Firefly Scholarship

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Firefly Orthoses’ partnership with Plymouth University continues to grow with the University announcing the Firefly Scholarship. The scholarship will take effect during the 2017/18 academic year.

The scholarship is devised for School of Podiatry students who show a special enthusiasm for the practice of musculoskeletal podiatry. The scholarship will contribute tuition fees of £2,500 for two final year BSc (Hons.) podiatry students for the 2017/18 academic year.

Both recipients will travel to Firefly’s headquarters in Sligo, Ireland to gain first-hand experience of how Firefly design and manufacture our custom made foot orthoses.  The students will become familiar with the combination of craftsmanship and technology that combine to make each pair of orthoses Firefly produce.

Firefly Scholarship

Podiatry at Plymouth Uni

As part of the partnership, Firefly clinical staff will present one full day of educational workshops at Plymouth University to the School of Podiatry’s final year students.

Criteria for applying for the scholarship

To be eligible for the award, you should be a well-motivated, committed and high-achieving final year undergraduate student, who requires financial support. You should demonstrate an interest in musculoskeletal practice. You should have an excellent record of academic achievement, with strong support from one academic and one clinical referee.

Click here to find out more about the Firefly Scholarship

For further details and how to apply for the scholarship, click this button to be brought to the Plymouth University website.

Founder and Medical Director of Firefly Orthoses, Martin Mc Geough welcomed the announcement of the scholarship and had this to say about the initiative:

The Plymouth university podiatry scholarship is a new initiative with Firefly. Two final year students will be awarded a scholarship bursary to help with university fees.

Our intent is to support podiatrists and this is a highly effective way of giving back to our profession. Both students will also have an opportunity to spend a week in our MSK clinical practices and lab division. They will observe how experienced MSK podiatrists practice and see our modern laboratory in operation.

We are very pleased to announce these scholarships.

About Plymouth University’s BSc (Hons.) Podiatry Programme

The BSc (Hons.) Podiatry is a three year, full-time degree. In the 2015 National Student Survey, 95% of the programme’s graduates praised it for having staff that are available to students when needed and 90% graduated feeling confident in tackling unfamiliar problems and situations as a direct result of the degree.

Further information about the Firefly scholarship and the podiatry degree can be sought by emailing [email protected].

Firefly Podiatrist promotes foot health in Tanzania

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Podiatrist Sarah O’Connell visited Tanzania in her final year of study to bring her skills and knowledge to help communities in the East African country.

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Firefly Orthoses Christmas Deadlines

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firefly-logo-with-snow

Firefly would like to make our customers aware of the dates we will be closed during the Christmas and new year period. 

 Firefly Orthoses will be CLOSED:

From the evening of Friday 23rd December, 2016 until Monday 3rd January 2017 – Office re-opens Tuesday 3rd January 2017.
All services will be unavailable on these dates – including production, technical support, customer service and accounting.

Christmas Deadline

Orders received up to and including Thursday 1st December will be completed and shipped to ensure receipt prior to Christmas closure.

RUSH requests will not be accepted for orders received after December 9th until January 3rd.

Please note:

We recommend that customers allow an additional 1-2 days for shipping during the Christmas postal season.

* Please contact the office for further information 00353 7191 49494

Firefly Casting Demonstration COP Conference 2016

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Due to the popularity of our casting demonstration session at the College of Podiatry Annual Conference 2016 we’ve uploaded the full 15 minutes of the demo to our website.

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Win an iPad & Structure Sensor combo at Firefly stand

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It’s annual conference week and we’re packing out bags to fly out to Glasgow.  Included in our luggage are an iPad Mini and Structure Sensor which we will be giving away on Saturday evening of the conference.

Firefly will give away iPad & Structure Sensor at this weeks conference

Firefly will give away iPad & Structure Sensor at this weeks conference

Visit the Firefly stand to win an iPad & Structure Sensor

Make sure to visit the Firefly Stand [stand number 131-133] in the exhibition space, where you can enter the draw for these amazing pieces of equipment.  The world of Podiatry is no different to any other industry and technology is positively effecting how we as podiatrists interact and treat our patients.

In Firefly’s Podiatry clinics across Ireland, our Podiatrists have embraced technology such as the iPad and Structure Sensor to capture 3D images of patient’s feet.  In essence, this technology is replacing traditional casting techniques such as plater of Paris and foam boxes casting.

ipad-give-away2

These technologies bring a number of distinct advantages when introduced to your clinic. The most obvious advantage when using the iPad/Structure Sensor is the speed at which you can capture patient foot image data.  You don’t have to prepare gloves, plaster and water basin. You don’t have to remove the plaster cast and wait for it to dry. With the iPad, you simply sync the iPad and Structure Sensor point the camera at the patient’s foot and rotate the device around the foot to capture the foot in 3D format.

castingFoot

Plaster of Paris casting technique

Firefly’s Digital Order Forms

At Firefly we also recommend using our digital fillable order forms when submitting 3D scans to our laboratory. Once the 3D scan is captured, our digital order forms can be filled out on an iPad and sent to Firefly by email. This significantly reduces the lead time for your patient.  You are no longer reliant on Royal Mail when submitting the cast or foam impression. Instead Royal Mail is used only to distribute your Firefly custom made orthoses.

If you are attending this year’s COP Conference in Glasgow and wish to see the iPad and Structure Sensor being demonstrated, make sure to attend one of the two workshops Firefly will be hosting during the conference. The first takes place on Thursday 17th, from 6pm to 6.15pm and the second is on Friday 18th from 3.30pm to 3.45pm.

Wiivv, NSOLS and Mobisit

Find out more about what Firefly will be exhibiting at this year’s conference by visiting our conference overview here. Read about Wiivv Wearable 3D printed custom insoles, and Firefly’s new over the counter orthotics, NSOLS. Finally, we’ll be exhibiting a new lower limb joint mobility application, the Mobisit- read all about this and more here.

COP Conference, Glasgow | November 17th – 19th

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Find out all Firefly will be offering at this year’s #COPC16. We’re introducing 3D scanners, hosting two workshops and launching our new over the counter NSOLS orthotics.

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New Firefly Order Forms

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At Firefly Orthoses we have updated our order forms.  Firefly’s product range, specifically our line of Specialised Devices has expanded.  Adding these devices to our offering has resulted in some slight changes to our Firefly prescription order forms.

Why use Firefly’s digital fillable order forms?

With greater numbers of our customers migrating to capturing patient foot data using iPads and tablets our digital order forms are becoming increasingly important. In our clinics we are actively using Sharp Shape’s AOMS TOT technology which incorporatessols-firefly-clinic-ankle-photo an iPad and Structure Sensor scanner.

The iPad app streamlines the process of naming, scanning, file-transferring all in one package, while it is simple enough for a trained office assistant to use and to avoid errors. Email and/or DropBox can be used as the carrier to transfer data, including a 3D OBJ file, a JPEG file and a text file, which contains necessary ordering information. The scanning dimensions are designed for feet in mind, to ensure highest resolution and accuracy with the sensor.

At Firefly we are increasingly receiving digital orders where the file and prescription are  emailed to our Lab.  To increase efficiency of time, you can now download Firefly’s prescription forms to your iPad, fill the form and capture the imaging  using your iPad and submit all the data (image file and digital prescription) in one email.  This significantly reduces lead times, removing the need to rely on the time it takes to post plaster of paris casts or foam boxes.  Adobe Reader is required when filling in our digital prescription forms on an iPad.  The native Apple program ‘Preview’ is not suitable for filling out our forms digitally. More info is available here on using Firefly’s Digital Order Forms.

 

Firefly Standard Devices Order Form

Firefly Standard Device Order Form

Our Premium Device order form has been replaced by the new Standard Device form. This new form provides for prescriptions that require functional, dress [men’s or women’s], sport and mould devices.

On the new form you’ll find all the Optional Spec, Posting, Additions and Modification options as per usual.

 

Firefly Specialised Devices Order Formsspecialised-devices-button

Our new Specialised Device order form takes account of our expanded range of devices for Diabetics and Rheumatoid Arthritic patients.

These devices are categorised into three groups: Accommodative, using Rubberflex shell, Hybrid, using Polypropylene [flexible] shell and Functional Devices, using a Polypropylene semi-rigid shell.

Some of these devices are suitable for both Diabetic and Arthritic patients.

The control level for each device type is indicated on the new forms too.

 

Richie-brace-buttonFirefly Richie Brace Order Form

There are no major changes regarding the Richie Brace order form.  The form presents the various Richie Brace AFOs, including the Dynamic Assist, Richie Soccer, Little Richie for younger patients, Richie Gauntlet and Richie Solid.

The form also provides notes on pathology specific prescriptions along with casting techniques on the rear of the form.

If you have any further information regarding our new digital forms, contact us via phone or email [email protected]

Camp Surf Social Good // Scholar Sponsorship

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This month Firefly is looking to the water.  Located on Ireland’s north west coast Firefly, like the people of this region, is inspired by the Atlantic Ocean.  Surf culture has, in recent decades, exploded in Sligo, further strengthening the connection between the people and the ocean.

Camp Surf Social Good is the brain child of local surfer, researcher, change maker [amongst other things] Easkey Britton and takes place  between October 13th and 16th in Ericeira, Portugal.  The event is ‘a gathering of 18 leaders, founders and wave makers from around the world.’, with the tagline where social innovation & creativity meet the sea.

Firefly Sponsors Surf Social Good Scholar

Firefly is sponsoring a section of the gathering; The Surf Social Good Scholar.  The recipient of the award this year is Iranian snowboard and surf pioneer, Mona Seraji.

Surf Social Good

Mona Seraji – Surf Social Good Scholar recipient

At age 15, Mona’s skis slipped off her car roof and broke. Mona replaced them with a snowboard. Soon after she blazed a new trail for Iranian women in the sport.

In February 2016, Mona made history as the first Middle Eastern person, male or female, to compete in the Free Ride World Qualifier in Switzerland. Her days as a competitor are winding down, but she plans to empower the next generation. She has qualified as an international snowboard instructor, children’s instructor and coach. Her goal is to coach the first female competitor for the 2024 Olympics.

In 2014 she co-created the grassroots surf community @wesurfiniran in 2014. Mona is also a graphic designer and PR manager of the Redline Team in Tehran.

Earlier this year Mona was selected as one of 50 people from around the world that have shown real courage and inspiration, for BBC Outlook Inspirations.

Follow Firefly at Camp Surf Social Good on site and twitter

You can follow Martin’s trip to Surf Social Good in Portugal here and across our twitter feed @FireflyOrthoses. Hopefully we’ll get some footage of Martin on a surf board! Now that would be interesting. This short video from NBC News tells a little more about Mona’s story.