Let’s Learn with Werkman, Boven! – Part II
If you missed part one of this two-part continuing education blog, read it here. To summarize the previous blog, Werkman, Boven & Associates has hosted monthly learning opportunities for our staff. We have invited some of our partners and suppliers to discuss their products and services and continue building relationships with them. We left off at the beginning of May’s meeting with our supplier, Infracare. Next up is our learning opportunity at the end of May with Medline.
The vast majority of our medical supplies come from Medline Canada. Kelley from Medline came to inform us about their new products and reinforce our current relationship. We also love it when Kelley visits because she always brings us Rick’s favourite Tim Hortons treat: apple fritters!
Next up was BSN Medical. Again, this is another long-time relationship that we’ve had. The most prominent treatment we offer from BSN is the Total Contact Casting wound care system that Kaitlin Boven has applied in the past. Our other chiropodists are also interested in providing this treatment, so Lisa gave us a brief overview of the benefits of this system. She will return for a complete training course for our other chiropodists soon.
As chiropodists, we often need to provide patients with prescription medications or topicals. Some of these medications require compounding, “the process of combining, mixing, or altering ingredients to create a medication tailored to the needs of an individual patient.”[1] Millcroft Pharmacy in Burlington, especially the owner and pharmacist, Dale, has been a huge help with all of our prescription questions and requests. She visited us in July to answer our chiropodists’ questions and to teach us more about what she does on her end of the health care.
After a break for holidays in August, we resumed our monthly learning in September when we invited Portofino Shoes to discuss their shoes. Gordon showed us various current and upcoming styles and provided us with their newest catalogue. 
October is another skip month, and then we plan on meeting with our medical compression stocking supplier, Sigvaris, in November. We look forward to refreshing ourselves on Sigvaris’ compression line and learning about their products from Stephanie.
Along with these learning opportunities, our chiropodists continue learning independently and attending conferences from the Canadian Federation of Podiatric Medicine (CFPM) and Ontario Society of Chiropodists (OSC) to stay up-to-date and learn about new and different treatments. We continue learning so we can continue to provide all ages with exceptional foot care!
